OPINION
6A
T HE
D AILY A STORIAN
The digital dog collar
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
SAMANTHA MCLAREN, Circulation Manager
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2015
By TIMOTHY EGAN
New York Times News Service
I
hate the new Apple Watch. Hate
what it will do to conversation,
to the pace of the day, to my
friends, to myself. I hate that it will
enable the things that already make
life so incremental, now-based and
hyper-connected.
That, and make things far worse.
This
has
nothing to do
with
Apple.
We can still be
friends.
I’m
writing on a
0DF%RRN $LU
my
constant
companion
since I kissed off
my hometown
Timothy
0LFURVRIWSUR-
Egan
grammed clunk-
othing is more thrilling to a farmer than planting a seed er for the sleek
and standing back to see what happens. Every year about DQGIDUOHVVQHHG\0DFVRPHWLPHDJR
I’m closer to my iPhone 6 than to some
2.1 million U.S. farmers do just that.
of my siblings — you never call, you
Some plant thousands of acres; can be found in noodles sold by a QHYHUWH[W\RXQHYHUVKDUHQRWDVHO¿H
others plant a patch of land the 7RN\R VWUHHW YHQGHU LQ ÀDW EUHDG in six months.
No, my animus for Apple’s smart-
size of a small backyard. Still baked in a stone oven in Algiers or
watch
— excuse me, wearable tech-
others take former industrial sites in a steamed bun sold in a Jakarta
nology — is for what it will do to us.
in places such as Detroit and restaurant.
Things are too complicated as it is. At
Philadelphia and convert them into
2WKHUFURSVDQGSURGXFWV¿OOWKH dinner with friends, or in a meeting that
urban farms.
shelves of shops and stores around I’m supposed to care about, when can I
They are all participating in the world, helping to feed 7 billion look at my phone? Who’s phone-ignore
worthy, and who’s not? At what point is
a 12,000-year-old ritual that has people.
looking down rude? And how long into
allowed humans to escape the
Who is the American farmer? a conversation till all sides get to call a
role of hunter-gatherer and create Though statistics tell us that the truce and take a screen dive?
a society where big ideas can be average age is about 58 and the
I say this as an information obses-
pursued. Once crops could be average farm is a little more than sive. I wish I could say recovering in-
JURZQ HI¿FLHQWO\ DQG DQLPDOV 400 acres, no farmer is typical. formation obsessive. Like most of us,
could be domesticated for milk and Just as every family is different, so I’m in need of digital detox, not a fresh
hit. Those restroom breaks at restau-
meat, humans were free to think too is every farmer. Some families rants were not about bladder relief. God
beyond their next meal.
have farming in their blood; they knows how many times I’ve sneaked
Today, farming is done across have tilled the land for generations. away from the table just to peek at a
the globe. In China, farmers have Others are new to it. Starting small, football score, a Daily Show clip, a text,
cultivated rice for more than they add equal parts of inspiration a photo or email, my Amazon book
number. What a miserable wretch. But
7,500 years. In Bolivia, another and perspiration in an effort to it could be worse: I have a friend who
ancient crop, quinoa, attracts grow new life and a livelihood texts while skiing.
extraordinarily high prices among from the land.
Apple says its smartwatch, which it
so-called foodies in the U.S. In
Our society reveres high rolled out at one of its Dear Leader-like
Brazil, ranchers raise beef cattle technology. Smartphones, electric events in San Francisco last week, will
VLPLODU WR WKRVH ¿UVW EURXJKW WR cars and all manner of computer- make interactions between human
and screen less complicated, and less
South America from India.
enhanced gimzos are seen as the rude. Instead of reaching into pocket
Agriculture
is
important wave of the future.
or purse in front of someone, the user
everywhere, but nowhere is it more
Yet,
without
agriculture, will just glance at the wrist. In fact, Ap-
important than in the United States. ZLWKRXWIRRGDQG¿EHUQRQHRIWKDW ple calls the new feature in which the
It was agriculture that helped a would exist. Before there could be watch is touched to access the Internet
a “glance.”
handful of colonies blossom into iPhones, there had to be plows and
Just a glance, nothing rude there.
a booming economic powerhouse tractors and combines.
Oh, really? Remember how off-put-
and world leader. Last year, U.S.
National Ag Day is Wednesday. ting it was when George Bush the elder
farmers raised more than $400 It is a day to talk about how food checked his watch during a question pe-
billion in crops and livestock on is produced, and about the integral riod from the audience in a presidential
slightly more than 900 million role farming and ranching play in debate? It may have cost him the elec-
acres.
society.
U.S. farmers feed their fellow
And it is a celebration of the
Americans — and much of the most important industry in the
world. U.S. wheat, for example, world.
Agriculture
matters most
Tomorrow we celebrate those who
till the earth and plant seeds
N
AP Photo/Eric Risberg
Apple CEO Tim Cook talks about the new Apple Watch during an Ap-
ple event March 9 in San Francisco.
tion in 1992.
your watch and get your friends’ at-
People check their phones about tention,” he said. Ah, there’s a rich re-
150 times a day. Now, imagine how lationship. I can think of a number of
many glances they’ll take with all the places once considered off-limits for
information in the world on their wrists. cellphone intrusions — the classroom,
Imagine how many people will attempt the dinner table, the bathtub — where
the watch can interrupt.
to drive while glancing, to
And who’s to know: it’s
walk while glancing, to talk
Who’s only a glance.
while glancing, to make love
There is some evidence
while glancing.
that heavy smartphone use
To the complaints that phone-
you dumber. The
our smartphone addiction
ignore makes
theory is that a having the
has produced a world where
world at the other end of
nobody talks much any- worthy,
a mobile search makes for
more, nobody listens and
and
lazy minds, while people
nobody reads, you can add
who depend less on their
a new one with the smart-
who’s
devices develop more ana-
watch: nobody makes eye
lytical skills.
contact.
not?
Add to this concerns
Tim Cook, the Apple
about privacy: that the
CEO, seems like a decent
and likable guy — no tech overlord in a watch is a tracking device, which sends
Darth Vader suit. But his presentation of all your personal information to a cen-
WKHQHZZDWFKRQ0RQGD\FUHHSHGPH tral database — a corporate control
out, and offered a road map to a world center that already knows far too much
about the preferences and habits of
I’m not sure I want to join.
“The Apple Watch is the most per- smartphone users.
It’s encouraging that smartwatches,
sonal device we have ever created,”
he said. “It’s not just with you, it’s on thus far, have not sold very well. This
you.” Ewwww. It sounds like a digital could be because many of them look
GRJ FROODU FRPSOHWH ZLWK DQ DQWLÀHD OLNHWKRVHÀXRUHVFHQWZULVWEDQGVWKDW
component. From here on out, there is people have to wear at all-inclusive re-
no down time, and no excuses for re- sorts in order to line up at the buffet ta-
ality escapes. You are connected, 24/7. ble. Or perhaps people are repulsed, as I
Cook tried to humanize Apple’s am, by this most intimate of invasions.
Backlash is inevitable. A few days
latest culture-disrupter. You can talk
to your wrist — it’s a phone! You can ago, Patrick Pichette, Google’s chief
check your heartbeat — it’s a doctor! ¿QDQFLDORI¿FHUDQQRXQFHGWKDWKHZDV
And if you don’t adequately exercise retiring because he wanted to spend
during the week, your watch will re- PRUHWLPHRIÀLQH+HKDGWKLVHSLSKD-
ny, he wrote, while watching the sun-
mind you of your failure — it’s a nag!
He seemed most rapt in describing ULVHIURP0RXQW.LOLPDQMDURZLWKKLV
how much closer together the Apple wife — an experience Apple has yet to
Watch will bring us all. “You can tap be able to meld to a wristwatch.
The cost of relativism
fore she left him for a drug
¿UVW D PRUDO YRFDEXODU\
addict.
These norms weren’t de-
.D\OD¶VPRPPDUULHGDQ
stroyed because of people
with bad values. They were
ne of America’s leading abusive man but lost custo-
destroyed by a plague of
political scientists, Robert dy of their kids to him when
nonjudgmentalism, which
they split. Her dad married
Putnam, has just come out with a woman with a child but
refused to assert that one
a book called Our Kids about the left her after it turned out
way of behaving was better
than another. People got out
growing chasm between those the child was fathered by
of the habit of setting stan-
KHUDEXVLYHVWHSIDWKHU.D\-
who live in college-educated
dards or understanding how
OD JUHZ XS DV RQH RI ¿YH
David
America and those who live in half-siblings from three re-
they were set.
Brooks
Next it will require hold-
high-school-educated America.
lationships until her parents
ost area residents know impetus for a major revitalization
ing
people responsible. Peo-
split
again
and
coupled
with
,W¶V JRW D GH¿QLWLYH FROOHFWLRQ RI
Westport as the state capital effort. Clatsop County plans data about this divide.
ple born into the most chaotic situations
others.
Elijah grew up in a violent neigh- can still be asked the same questions:
of amazing berry products and improvements to the boat launch,
Roughly 10 percent of the children borhood and saw a girl killed in a Are you living for short-term pleasure
site of a conveniently located park area and access to the adjacent
born to college grads grow up in sin- drive-by shooting when he was 4. He or long-term good? Are you living for
convenience store on the way Westport Ferry landing. Future gle-parent households. Nearly 70 per- burned down a lady’s house when yourself or for your children? Do you
to Longview, Wash. A smaller prospects include a trail between cent of children born to
he was 13. He goes have the freedom of self-control or are
number know it as the Oregon-side the ferry landing and the park and a high school grads do.
through periods marked you in bondage to your desires?
Next it will require holding every-
by drugs, clubbing and
port for the Columbia River’s last transient dock, where boaters can tie There are a bunch of We won’t
body
responsible. America is obviously
charts
that
look
like
open
sex
but
also
dreams
of
ferryboat. Fewer still know it as a up for the afternoon.
have
not
a
country
in which the less educated
scissors.
In
the
1960s
or
being
a
preacher.
“I
just
rather nice little town with a lot of
All this is a wonderful way for
1970s, college-educated
love beating up some- are behaving irresponsibly and the more
social
potential in its own right.
FRXQW\ FLWL]HQV DQG RI¿FLDOV WR and
noncollege-edu-
body,” he told a member educated are beacons of virtue. Ameri-
Thanks to active citizens and better utilize the valuable asset of a cated families behaved
of Putnam’s team, “and ca is a country in which privileged peo-
repair
a generous gift from the Georgia- splendid river shoreline and riparian roughly the same. But
making their nose bleed ple suffer from their own characteristic
since then, behav- unless we
and just hurting them and forms of self-indulgence: the tendency
3DFL¿F :DXQD 0LOO :HVWSRUW area.
ior
patterns
have
ever
just beating them on the to self-segregate, the comprehensive
now has the added potential of
Playing a major role in all this
are more ground.”
failures of leadership in government
more sharply diverged.
becoming more of a destination for DUH 0DUJDUHW 0DJUXGHU DQG WKH High-school-educated
7KH ¿UVW UHVSRQVH WR and industry. Social norms need repair
morally
recreational users of the river, as Lower Columbia River Watershed parents dine with their
these stats and to these up and down the scale, universally, to-
well as home to greatly enhanced Council, which are spearheading an children less than col- articulate.
SUR¿OHVVKRXOGEHLQWHQVH gether and all at once.
People sometimes wonder why I’ve
sympathy. We now have
salmon habitat.
effort to reconnect Plympton Creek lege-educated parents,
multiple generations of taken this column in a spiritual and
Named for pioneer salmon packer with its historic channel. Like many read to them less, talk to
John West — whose name remains small tributaries draining into the them less, take them to church less, en- people caught in recurring feedback moral direction of late. It’s in part be-
courage them less and spend less time loops of economic stress and family cause we won’t have social repair un-
synonymous with salmon in Great Columbia estuary, the creek was engaging in developmental activity.
breakdown, often leading to something less we are more morally articulate, un-
Britain where his products were monkeyed with during settlement
Interspersed with these statistics, approaching an anarchy of the intimate OHVVZHKDYHFOHDUHUGH¿QLWLRQVRIKRZ
intensively marketed — Westport’s times. By applying modern practices 3XWQDP DQG KLV UHVHDUFK WHDP SUR¿OH life.
we should be behaving at all levels.
History is full of examples of moral
VRPHRIWKHUHSUHVHQWDWLYH¿JXUHVIURP
But
it’s
increasingly
clear
that
sym-
attractions require leaving U.S. in the watershed, salmon will once
revival,
when social chaos was reversed,
HDFK
VRFLDO
FODVV
7KH
SUR¿OHV
IURP
pathy
is
not
enough.
It’s
not
only
mon-
Highway 30 and exploring its again have access to valuable habitat.
high-school-educated America are fa- ey and better policy that are missing when behavior was tightened and norms
connections with the Columbia. ,W PXVW EH QRWHG WKDW 0DJUXGHU PLOLDUEXWKRUUL¿F
in these circles; it’s norms. The health reasserted. It happened in England in the
The unincorporated town has has been a heroine on behalf of
David’s mother was basically ab- of society is primarily determined by 1830s and in the U.S. amid economic
considerable waterfront, including a watershed recovery for decades and sent. “All her boyfriends have been the habits and virtues of its citizens. stress in the 1930s. It happens through
boat launch and parking area that are deserves sustained applause for her nuts,” he said. “I never really got to see In many parts of America there are no organic communal effort, with voices
my mom that much.” His dad dropped minimally agreed upon standards for from everywhere saying gently: This we
both in need of maintenance.
tireless work.
Neatly timed with the arrival of
The rest of us in Clatsop County out of school, dated several women what it means to be a father. There are praise. This we don’t.
Every parent loves his or her chil-
with drug problems and is now in pris- no basic codes and rules woven into
the new Washington state ferry Oscar and our neighbors in Columbia on. David went to seven different ele- daily life, which people can absorb un- dren. Everybody struggles. But we
B connecting with Puget Island, County should do all we can to mentary schools. He ended up under consciously and follow automatically.
need ideals and standards to guide the
Wauna’s land donation provides the support these efforts in Westport.
house arrest and got a girl pregnant be-
Reintroducing norms will require, way.
By DAVID BROOKS
New York Times News Service
Westport upgrades O
are welcome
M
Improvements beckon all
of us in Clatsop County