Future Shock

Back in 1972, I was in the seventh grade in my little bitty home town. My mom taught seventh grade life science and, being such a small town, I had her as my teacher.

Actually, she was a terrific teacher and the students loved her course. The only bad thing about having my mom as a teacher was that I was expected to make really good grades in her class. (Not such a bad thing when you think about it, but when you’re twelve, it's a big deal.)

Anyway, in 1972, she began showing this really sensational film called, “Future Shock” which was about the repercussions that modern society would have on us, especially with how fast it was changing. I’ll admit remembering how shocking it really was. Orson Wells was the narrator.

For those of you who are of my generation, you probably recall how exciting it was to walk into a classroom and see a film projector set up. “Cool! -- No class work!”

My mom would show this 45 minute film year after year at mid-term because it gave her a chance to sit in the back and spend a whole period averaging the grades for the mid-term report cards.

One time, my mom had the film projector at home along with this film. My friend, Tim, and I wanted to watch it again and asked if we could set up the projector in the living room to do so. After much persuading, she relented but only if we promised to be really careful with it.

I think you know where this story is going. . . .

Tim and I discovered how to run the film backward and spent the next hour in adolescent glee, watching the entire thing in reverse. A more entertaining activity for a 13 year old boys, I cannot think of.

The thing is, running a filmstrip in reverse damages the tracks in the film and the entire thing was ruined. Poor mom. She was due to show the film the next day. Needless to say, the decibel level in the house was up for quite a while. Tim and I are still in the dog house over that one.

Anyway, I found “Future Shock” on the Youtubes and watched it again today. It was really fascinating to see it again with all its dire warnings about the effect modern society would have on us. What was really interesting was to see how much things have changed since 1972. Even more so, how they've hardly changed at all.

So with that, I give you Future Shock.

(Part 3 shows a same-sex marriage ceremony. I remember thinking that the two men were "probably just really good friends" and just wanted to be together.)

I still love the cheesy synthesizer soundtrack in this thing.

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