How I Know Civilization Is Declining

Disclaimer: This blog will contain a lot of complaining. If you do not like to read complaints, consider complaints, contemplate complaints or otherwise object to carping, crabbing, kvetching, or castigating, please leave now. Your comments will not be published. If you are @CarliLloyd, welcome. Please contribute at will.

On to business. No, wait, first...

Some Background: I grew up with the Cold War and the Space Race. I was taught from childhood to look forward to jetpacks, weekend trips to the Moon and Mars, and eventual space travel to other solar systems and galaxies. That is, of course, if the Russians didn't beat us into space and subsequently annihilate us with nuclear weapons. It was touch and go for a while there, but we made it through. Sort of.

Now. How do I know civilization is declining? Simple.

There is no more SST.

Developed in the 1960s, tested in the early 70s and entering commercial service in 1976, the Concorde SST provided supersonic commercial service. "Among other destinations, Concorde flew regular transatlantic flights from London Heathrow and Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport to New York JFK, Washington Dulles and Barbados; it flew these routes in less than half the time of other airliners" (wikipedia).

Despite numerous technological challenges, environmental concerns and public opposition, the Concorde was operated profitably for 27 years and was not retired until 2003 "due to a general downturn in the aviation industry after the type's only crash in 2000, the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, and a decision by Airbus, the successor firm of Aérospatiale and BAC, to discontinue maintenance support." (same source)

So. No jetpacks, no weekend excursions to Mars, and now even the pipe dream of going shopping in Paris for the day is no more.

Skipping ahead. Today my wife and I decided to take a walk, during which we had a modest shopping intent. We wanted facial moisturizer. We wanted rechargeable batteries. And we wanted ice cream. Simple enough. No space travel, no supersonic transatlantic travel, not even a need for a jetpack, we were happy to have a nice walk on a nice day. But do you think in a metropolitan area you can count on being able to buy facial moisturizer, rechargeable batteries, or ice cream? You might be disappointed.

The store where we wanted to buy moisturizer was out of the product we wanted. They were interested in upselling us a more expensive product. These were in-store brands; there was no distributor or middle-man involved. Their own products. This was not the first time this had happened there, either. Bait and switch?

The drugstore where we wanted to buy batteries keeps the batteries behind the counter. You can't see them. To ask for them or about them, you have to wait in line. A long line. No thanks. We left.

The store where we buy ice cream, which was out of ice cream last time we checked, had gotten more, but only two flavors, and not the ones we buy. It's ice cream, people. Not rocket science. Not supersonic transport.

We tried another drugstore but they didn't have rechargeable AA batteries, only AAA.

We finally found the batteries at Radio Shack, though getting any of the surly employees to check us out was a little tricky. And we finally found the ice cream at Safeway. All's well that ends with a bowl of ice cream.

photo from theurbanoutreach.org