Barack Obama said it, so it must be true, but if you were to choose any time in the history of the world to be alive, you ought to choose now. If you further have the winning lottery ticket of living inside a western democracy there are dishwashers, Ugg boots, vacuum cleaners, paper clips, paper, clean water, glass, anaesthetics, year round quinoa and broccolini, all the songs, all the programmes, all the sport, all the everything.
You don’t even have to worry about snapping the cork off in the wine bottle because, hey it’s all screwtops now. Turns out the French had us duped all along. Cars have containers for your coffee cups, sat nav, cruise control and water for the rear windscreen. There are cars in the first place (though guzzling up the fossil fuels - memo, need to fix that). You can video friends in other cities. You don’t need a camera or an alarm clock. You can make your own podcast if you really want to.
But here’s another cliche. None of it seems to make us much happier. And it sometimes seems as if modern life is, in fact, yes, rubbish.
I think, personally that as humans we have struggled to accept that there is no meaning to life, after all. We are just stardust. The more we know about the size of the universe, about how things work, about history repeating itself, the more panicstricken we have become. And, of course, we can now see people dying in far away wars or suffering in earthquakes or a child stuck down a well in Slovakia, things that were previously out of sight, so out of mind.
As the Specials put it - enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. Meanwhile though, here’s a comforting selection of songs on the subject of what a pile of pants modern life is. (Does not include Blur, though I have nothing against them.)
Tracklist:
The city, The Dismemberment Plan
Jogging, Richard Dawson
Redevelopment, Home Counties
French disko, Stereolab
Then they came for me, The Drones
Amused as hell, Cathal Coughlan
Dark days, Yard Act
National shite day, Half Man Half Biscuit
The lonely little thrift store, Jonathan Richman
Broken household appliance, Grandaddy
Bankrupt on selling, Modest Mouse
Hated Sunday, Black Box Recorder