Postmodern World

Welcome to Postmodern World, where questions are more important than answers, and the trip itself is the beginning, middle, and endgame. What, you didn’t know we’re in Postmodern World? I’m not surprised. The transition from Modern World can be jarring, like the change from gas to electricity or the horse and buggy to cars. Paradigm shifts are difficult, and we are in the midst of a whopper moving from the Modern to the Postmodern Era.

When the automobile was first introduced, all sorts of laws were passed to figure out how to accommodate these noisy, smelly machines on roads still traversed mainly by horses and pedestrians. Many municipalities passed laws requiring a person carrying a bright red triangular flag to walk 60 yards in front of every car, the idea, I guess, being that it would give the unmechanized a chance to get out of the way.

An 1896 Pennsylvania law required all drivers, “upon chance encounters with cattle or livestock to: immediately stop the vehicle, immediately and as rapidly as possible, disassemble the automobile, and conceal the various components out of sight behind nearby bushes until equestrian or livestock is sufficiently pacified.”

The old ways die hard.