[GreenKeys] QSO's with glass tubes

[Mark Richards]

For what it may be worth, I wholly agree with your observations.

It may be that ARRL membership, and the ratio of ARRL renewals for new 
licensees, is a good indicator of the sustainable growth of Amateur 
Radio.  I don't think anyone has done a study.  The data is there... 
maybe this will be my calling.

Now I may be straying a bit...

America still has 3 social and economic classes, and these are tightly 
linked:

     The upper class: pays none of the taxes, has all of the money, does 
none of the work
     The middle class: does all of the work, pays all of the taxes
     The lower class: exist to scare the poop out of the middle class

All the while the upper class continues robbing what's left of the banks.

In order to maintain this structure a drug is needed.  The old drug was 
TV.  The new distraction is the flat screen (quoting myself, "flat 
screen, flat world") and the further social distancing produced by the 
internet-ization of every social interaction.  As long as we have 
devices that plug into the wall, make a humming sound, and when we press 
a button start the car and make toast, many of us will be too gizmod' to 
complain about our basic economic and social plight.

Ideas my own.  Ideation/adaptation courtesy of the late and prophetic 
George Carlin.


There is a parallel between the fascination with Amateur Radio in my 
youth and today's youthful fascination with flat screens.  I was 
obsessed with something that gave me great pleasure, opened up direct 
communication with others, advanced skills with wide-ranging impacts, 
and provided a balanced kinesthetic, visual and auditory experience.  
Today, the flat screens are made in China (whereas I built my own gear 
and fixed hand-me-down stuff), are programmed in Redmond (whereas I 
constructed my own methods and adapted those in use), and are used for a 
few months and then replaced by a newer gizmo that has even more 
unnecessary features than its predecessor (whereas in my time gear was 
expensive and precious; was rugged and well purposed, and had therefore 
a value beyond the cost of the unit itself - I came to love it and 
therefore respect the cost and effort involved).

A prime difference to consider is the speed of everything.  It took 
thousands of years to transition from the agrarian economy to the 
industrial economy.  It took just a few decades to transition from the 
industrial economy to the internet/flat screen economy. The next 
transition will be even faster, and I suspect it will come about when 
the electricity simply flows no more.  Then we will return to rooting 
for potatoes... a good thing.

I feel deep sadness and concern for today's children who have been 
denied the opportunity to feel the grip of a pencil between their 
fingers; the neuron-pathway-development that comes from forming letters 
on paper with that pencil; the transfer and further expansion of these 
kinesthetics to the whole life.   Our clueless school "district" spent 
hundreds of thousands on "I" pads for first year students and in so 
doing they follow the mainstream over a cliff.  How ridiculous and 
outrageous.  But it cannot be stopped.

Drugs are like that.


/k1mgy


On 02/05/2014 11:09, tony.podrasky wrote:
> GM OMs;
>
> I disagree.
>
> I'm wondering if the ARRL has a chart that shows the direction
> of membership: is it going up or down?