The argument: key words

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 483.

1. Past ages carefully labelled by anthropologists: Paleolithic Man, Neolithic Man, etc.

2. 20^th century: anthropologists' label: ‘Legless Man'

3. A history of this time might sound like this:

4. 20^th century: people forgot use of legs; used cars, buses, trains from early age

5. Lifts, escalators in all buildings prevented them from walking

6. Situation forced upon earth-dwellers: way of life; travelled long distances

7. Even on holiday: cable railways, ski-lifts, roads to tops of mountains

8. Don't use our eyes any more: hurry to get from place to place

9. Air travel: a bird's-eye view of the world, or less

10. Car and train: a blurred image of the countryside

11. Car drivers: urge to go on and on without stopping; motorways to blame?

12. Sea travel: summed up in old song: ‘I joined the Navy...'

13. Typical 20^th-century traveller: ‘I've been there'. El Dorado, Kabul, Irkutsk: through at 100 miles an hour

14. When travelling at high speeds present means nothing: life in future

15. Actual arrival is meaningless; want to move on

16. Suspend all experience; present no longer a reality; might as well be dead

17. Traveller on foot: lives constantly in present

18. Travelling and arriving: the same thing, arrives with every step

19. Experiences present moment: ears, eyes, whole body

20. End of journey: weariness, satisfying sleep: just reward