This Turning World

I recently read Stephen King’s epic fantasy tale The Dark Tower series. This is a massive work that King spent twenty years writing. One of the recurring themes is the idea that the story takes place “after the world had turned” … meaning that the world (or in the case of King's tale, worlds) and all its inhabitants experienced a massive change which affected the physical and social fabric of life. Even time seems a bit wobbly as the story unfolds.

I started thinking about our own world. Have there been times when it has “turned”? Have there been times here in the real world when events radically and permanently changed the lives of everyone on the planet … or at least such that everyone on the planet noticed? … And those who were born after the world turned had no concept of what the world was like before it “turned”.

The industrial revolution of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s jumps to mind. The advent of electricity, cars, planes, communications, rail systems, and scores of other technological breakthroughs rocketed the world from a slow paced agricultural based world to an industrial engine driven world. This allowed two massive world wars to explode before humans learned to operate in this new environment.

… The world had turned.

The period which began shortly after the Second World War and lasted until sometime in the early 70’s was a quiet growing time for the world … Oh sure, there were regional flair-ups and the cold war was constantly festering. This was a real war but waged with ideology rather than bullets (although several hot spots did erupt). The competing ideas of freedom and communism vied for dominance. But generally, the concepts of right and wrong, good and evil were accepted by nearly everyone. But sometime in the early 70’s something happened that changed everything again. …. I’m not sure what it was. Perhaps it was the Viet Nam War. Perhaps it was the influence of the free love movement and enabling birth control pill. Perhaps it was the activist Supreme Court ruling on abortion. Maybe these are all just symptoms of the true change that happened. People started embracing the notion that there are no universal truths. The idea that there was a right and a wrong fell out of fashion. Certainly a code of behavior as defined by some old dusty book (the Bible) was viewed by many (including those who produced our entertainment in Hollywood) as outdated and unenlightened. This paved the way for all kinds of behavior that wouldn’t have been tolerated just ten years earlier.

… The world had turned.

And now here we are in the later part of 2009. In September of 2001, we all became keenly aware that the world had been changing once again. When an especially virulent form of radical Islam attacked New York and Washington D.C., we began to understand that our way of life here in America and other western countries was being seriously challenged. We’re seeing the world being polarized by clashing ideologies. Ideologies which often cannot tolerate the coexistance of the other.

Even here in America, the polarization between good and evil is slowly creating a gulf. Many politcal leaders are begining to question whether the inspired principals of individual freedoms as outlined in our constitution apply in today's world. As they try to move the country toward a more socially enligtend political structure, those who love a revere the principles of individual freedoms are resisting with an increasing voice. This growing gulf is becoming more and more difficult to bridge.

…. The world is turning once again.

Where will this new “turned” world will end up is unclear. What is clear is that it will never be the old world again. And sadly, only those of us who have lived in both "worlds" will have any memory of earlier (and I believe better) world.