Juxtaposition of the Near-Century

At Thanksgiving, I marked the holiday (ie, posted in advance) with some vintage Fontaine Fox, including this one from Feb. 17, 1920.

Now comes the rebirth of You Damn Kid, a less ancient classic but one that, as far as webcomics go, reaches back to the dawn of time, or at least into the early morning hours, the days of Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet and Bruno the Bandit and Bruno who wasn't a bandit and Sabrina who was not safe for work long before we all quit (or lost) our jobs and began working from home.

So, welcome back to Owen Dunne and, as the two comics above indicate, my, how times have changed.

We've gone from a community dialogue to the Wild West and I would note that, while the legends of the Wild West involve daily shootouts, if you look into the real-life exploits that inspired them, you find that most people in places like Tombstone and Dodge City were decent folks who did not welcome the aggro.

Which I mention because at some point, online media sites began to realize that turning the comments section over to the Uncle Mikes of this world did not seem to foster dialogue, and some at least are hoping to find a solution to the raw sewage it engenders.

Well, one that doesn't involve actually spending money.

Money being the issue: Not only do they not want to hire moderators, but they seem content to surround their reportage with skeevy, pervy, nasty, revenue-generating advertising links to stories about boobs and magical cures and more boobs and vicious gossip and boobs. 

Which, given the change from that 1920 view of community dialogue to the one advanced by Uncle Mike, is probably just a matter of giving the customers what they want.

In any case, while Fox's comment that "The Family Became Almost Respectful In Their Manner Toward Dad" was intended as gentle sarcasm in 1920, the gag wouldn't work at all today, as demonstrated in that fourth panel of YDK.

 

A somewhat less toxic element of change is noted this morning by Mr. Fitz, in a slight departure from his usual discussion of educational topics but well within the framework of teacher/student interaction.

It's closely related to a media change I used to talk to civic groups about, which is that, in the days of three networks, the whole family would gather around the set on Sunday night for Ed Sullivan, an hour show in which maybe 10 minutes would be aimed at your own demographic and 30 would be interesting anyway and some of the rest would inspire eyerolls -- the specific division and classifications based on which age group you were in.

But it was community and it meant that little boneheads like me knew all the songs from current Broadway shows and were familiar with Borscht Belt comedians because we had to sit through them to get to the Beatles or whoever we were really looking for.

And I would note that we ought not to congratulate ourselves too much about our sense of community because, after all, we only owned one TV, so what were the alternatives?

We were like the pre-industrial family gathered around the hearth not because they loved each other but because the rest of the house was cold and dark.

In these days, kids don't watch Two-Ton Tessie O'Shay or some guy spinning plates in order to catch the rock act -- they go up to their room and go straight to what they want, with the result being that a 15-year-old in America knows more about another 15-year-old in Australia than he does about his neighbor across the street.

Nearly exactly Mr. Fitz's point, though he goes slightly more for the "Where's my flying car?" element.

In all fairness, however, technology is value-neutral. It's the application of technology that adds value, for better or worse.

Example: When my contemporaries went into the Peace Corps, they disappeared for a couple of years, and then they returned, much changed but back here in the States, with that chapter pretty much closed except for a few reunions with fellow members and maybe a card at Christmas.

My niece went off to Thailand with the Corps and remained in touch with home and family on-line the whole time. Her folks went and visited her and, now that she's several years back, she's Facebook friends with several of her Thai buddies and at least one came here to visit.

Apparently there's a little bit of "in my day" friction with some old Corps members about this, but the work is pretty much the same and the goal was to help the people you served.

The "solitary ordeal" aspect was simply a product of the times, not an essential of the program.

 

Meanwhile, back at the birdfeeder

Who says the current generation isn't in touch with nature? Bug Martini discusses the circle of life.

Views are pretty limited from my current apartment, but a few houses ago, I had a huge tree in the backyard that I could see from the kitchen window, and I hung a number of bird feeders in it.  

I built up a pretty good crowd, and sometimes a hawk would come by and spend a couple of days there, too. There was enough nearby brush that the little guys had some cover, but I didn't worry about it too much. 

I liked feeding the birds.

To each other? Well, okay, that works, too.

My neighbor told me that I had a fisher in the tree one day while I was at work. I was sorry I missed seeing it, but I was mostly sorry that he didn't stick around a little longer and thin out the squirrels.

 

 

 

Comments

[Owen Dunne]

That was nice to wake up to...actually, I think it might be one of the rare occasions I was up before Mike, seeing as how winter finally arrived in Wisconsin and I was up shoveling snow under the stars. Anyway, tomorrow's "Days Of Meaven" is dedicated to Mr. Peterson, as it's based on an old riff from a comic of mine that Mike reminded me of when we were in Kenosha.

[Craig L]

Welcome back, "YDK!" But you did miss mentioning one of the best 'ancient' webcomics that remains one of my favorites (being a lover of 'comic space opera'): "Melonpool" http://www.melonpool.com/ especially since just a few months ago the creator, Steve Troop, did a "Star Trek"-style reboot for a wonderfully silly origin story of how the cartoony aliens got together on the same spaceship before it crashlanded on Earth (where the original started in 1996).

Now I live on the very edge of San Luis Obispo, California, with Highway 101 to the East and a series of rolling hills to the West, that run seven miles to the Pacific Ocean with an otter refuge, a nude beach and the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. Hey, the rent's cheap. But I've experienced less contact with the local wildlife than most of my neighbors... a couple grey sparrows (the region's least colorful bird) have flown into my apartment when I left the front door open, and one raccoon has noisily rummaged through the bags of cans and bottles for recycling in the corner of my porch (yes, I have an apartment with a porch!). I didn't see it myself, but a neighbor witnessed a deer who decided not to stare into headlights on the frontage road but rather to race a motorcycle. It did not end well. The cycle rider was badly injured and the deer became roast vennison under the hot cycle motor.