New Is Not Always Better

Folks, every once in a while, a well-meaning friend will send me a picture of a cat doing something strange, with a caption on the image that is phrased in poor grammar. Now, apparently, generating these photos is a popular pastime on the internet tubes, and for many, it passes as humor, but frankly, I don’t see the point. This seems to be what people call “Web 2.0,” which I guess represents semi-entertaining website page-doohickeys which have no substance.

You see, new is not always better. I don’t understand what was wrong with Web 1.0. You had the information you wanted. Maybe it didn’t look as pretty. Maybe it didn’t have pictures of cats holding lightsabres. But didn’t we just replace the dancing hamsters of yesteryear? Whatever happened to sites like David Hasselhoff is the AntiChrist? I mean, that’s just good solid research, presented in a simple form.

Perhaps I just don’t understand the tubes. That’s fine. But I do see people grabbing whatever is new and trendy. Look what happened to a generation when we got all excited about “food” you could buy in a box, or bags of complete stir frys you could just drop in a skillet. We abandoned the cooking of our forefathers (or, usually, foremothers), and fattened up like cows ready to go to market.

And let’s not forget Bryan Adams. I will say no more.

New is not always better, folks. I think we are fooled into thinking it is because when we are new, it’s usually a good thing. That is, when we learn and grow, we understand that we’ve gained something valuable. But what we don’t understand is that we are not separate from that old self we were the day before. We’ve built on the experiences of times past in order to become something new. Too often, in the larger context, we abandon what was working for us entirely and substitute something new that’s been built on nothing. Sometimes, we do a little of both, such as in the case of modern medicine, which seems to be built on both the medical practices of the past and the latest drugs that I invented with my Tinkertoy chemistry set. Recently, in an independent study, Prozac was discovered to be no different than a placebo. Of course, I don’t think that undermines the use of Prozac as much as it undervalues the effectiveness of placebos. As I am a fake doctor, I cannot prescribe drugs in my practice, but really, fake drugs seem to work as well anyway.

But this is not about the stupidity of the medical industry. It’s full of Tinkertoy doctors, and I’m sure that someone will soon realize it.

But, this morning on the radio they were giving away tickets to see Bryan Adams, and I just had to wonder, have we learned our lesson yet? A new Bryan Adams is just old Bryan Adams, who was popular only because he was once new Bryan Adams. Seriously, forget about watching him perform and go to a Britney Spears concert. I hear she’s an amazing performer.

Just My Thoughts,
Dr. Matt*

*Dr. Matt is not a real doctor.