What's New

by James Morris

Novelty beckons Americans as never before. As the wreckage of our headlong race for the next new thing recedes in the rearview mirror, will we remember what we’ve lost?

Nothing new was once the norm. think of how many centuries our ancestors lived out their lives in circumstances that changed not at all from cradle to ­grave—­that cycled through the seasons untouched by material advance or technological invention, following patterns that seemed beyond alteration. If they’d had clocks, it wouldn’t have mattered whether the hands moved. The exacting second hand on a modern clock and those ubiquitous digital displays, with a colon sometimes pulsing the seconds between hours and minutes, locate us in every moment. We expect time to go not in a circle but like an arrow; if it lands in unfamiliar terrain, so much the better. We’re suckers for the new, and “putting things behind us,” whether the things be lovers, careers, addresses, attitudes, fashions, gadgets, or disasters, is our ­norm.

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