Memory

America has a memory problem. History is our worst subject. We suffer self induced alzheimers. Bad memories are imprinted with an adrenal burst, hence the plague of PTSD. Good memories are reinforced with a shot of serotonin. We do well with repitition but as far as the day to day we tend to wipe the slate clean and want it that way. Alzheimers patients often have vivid long term memory imprints but can't remember what was said 10 minutes ago.

Traditionally, cultures first develope an oral tradition. Everyone sits around the campfire and tells creation stories, war stories and stories of good times and bad.. American culture has old movies, Ken Burns and huge logs of sports statistics.

No importance is placed on the autobiographical so most of us exist as ciphers. Our banks are filled with the forgotten. How can we construct a meaningful myth out of such fragmented data?

The lies we choose to believe are inadequate. Tell me something that makes me more human. To be one of six or seven billion seems to me intimate and somehow comforting. Unlike G.W. who demonstrated that we are all on our own. Great lies are told at the country club but they are only aggrandizement. Perfect lies are pronounced in the church but they are only wishful thinking. Untruths rain from the skies and we buffer ourselves with our ability to forget.

To tell a new story is a time of making.

When alien archeologists dig through our rubble in the distant future they will say, "I can't believe they watched so much television."