Irony of our era

Our era seems very shallow while ironically I think we in this era see things from a higher perspective due to pervasive media.

I was reading a beginning of a chapter of Orwell's Homage to Catalonia and thought, half jokingly, big deal, you were on a train going from one province in Spain to another, in a war, OK. But in *his* era somebody reads that, and its romantic and adventurous and meaningful (world history happening), and they dream of escaping their small hometown or their boring city surroundings and being someone all the people in their hometown will talk of. Maybe they'll write a book.

Our era, on the other hand, is thinking seen enough dopes firing off rounds in a dusty environment on the internet. No thanks. World history? Making rent next month in this economy is enough world history for me. Hemingway wrote books about such adventures and they are shallow, vain, and embarrassing as hell at this point. What is war when nuclear weapons are the real gods of the battlefield now? I can see the devil and his spiritual progeny unleashed and unbounded on LiveLeak.com any time.

We have the great overview after having lived after the 20th century with all it's epic horror recorded by media, and now everything around the world recorded 20 times over by personal media, the most violent acts possible, biggest natural tragedies, etc., etc. In Orwell's time people were stuck in the parts and not able to see the whole.

The real adventure now, the only one left, is spiritual development. Real spiritual development. There are real limits there to provoke and extend. Real practical knowledge to find.