While technically the grand event won't happen until January 1st of 2001, by
the time you read this issue of Dimensions it will be a brand-new millennium
for most of us. Something that happens only every thousand years. A good
part of the population never even gets to experience the turn of a century,
and being there when the millennium turns is certain to have an impact on
our lives. Personally, I think it'll take a few years to really sink in that
we're
in a new millennium. All of a sudden we're no longer at the end of a
thousand years of history and wars, but at the very start of the future, the
millennium where Star Trek takes place, and just about every piece of
science fiction I've ever read. It's sort of scary, as if after a long, long
time of living in a comfortable, familiar valley we've come to a mountain
pass and beyond it we see a vast expanse of uncharted land. It's interesting
how the future always turns out different from what we imagine. The future
as depicted in George Orwell's
"1984" never came to pass, we're still far away from Kubrick's "2001—A Space
Odyssey," and Buck Rogers style rocket packs won't replace cars anytime
soon.
Then again, not even the most imaginative fiction writers foresaw the advent
and impact of the computer, and certainly not the way computers and
communications are changing the very fabric of our society. No one could
have predicted the worldwide web and how it literally changed everything
within a few short years. Who could have expected or predicted that putting
many millions of circuits onto a silicon waver smaller than a postage stamp
would bring first word-processing and spreadsheets and databases, then Macs
and Windows and email, and finally the web, amazon.com, eBay, and ICQ?
Reality is often stranger than fiction, and our electronic advances is
something no one could have dreamed up. It's about as close to magic as it
gets.
And just like the impact of a brand new millennium won't be truly
felt for several years, it will be years until we'll figure out how to best
use all that new technology emanating from white-hot techno foundries from
Silicon Valley to Osaka, Japan.
Personally, I can barely imagine life without computers and
communication.
My entire work is on the three computers on my desk which are networked to
all
other computers in our office and permanently connected to the Internet via
high speed data lines. I rarely use the phone for anything but connecting a
modem, and I all but stopped watching TV because browsing the web is much
more
interesting and interactive. And ff1 do want to watch something I simply pop
up the TV tuner window. When on the road, I use my wireless RIM pager to
send and receive email and even send messages to phones or fax machines. I
can talk to my car thanks to a Microsoft AutoPC and my mom can see pictures
of my four year old son almost as soon as I uploaded them from my digital
camera.
What does all of it have to do with Dimensions and the size
acceptance
movement? Everything. It has been only 30 years since a compassionate
visionary
by the name of William J. Fabrey started NAAFA, which initially stood for
"National Association to Aid Fat Americans." In those early days, the only
way to spread the word was by handing out pamphlets, placing brief
classified ads in the Village Voice, or to get covered by the media—always a
mixed blessing. Finding any information on size-related issues was an
exercise in patience and frustration.
In 1969 we could put a man on the moon, but in terms of
communication we
were still closer to the pony express than to America Online. As a result,
fat people remained isolated for many more years. Dances put up by early
Chapter of NAAFA in the New York area were pretty much the sum total of
places where fat people and their admirers could meet. Requests for
information on size acceptance likely took weeks to be filled by a NAAFA
office that was nothing more than a few folders in a volunteer's home.
Fast forward to today. Getting information is a cinch. In fact,
there is so much of it that sifting through it is more of a problem than
finding it. For example, when I entered the term "size acceptance" into the
AltaVista search engine, it returned 2,855 sources. Our own Dimensions
Online website lists what we consider the top 500 links to size acceptance
resources, and we're constantly adding more because there is so much
valuable (and entertaining) stuff out there. The Dimensions web boards have
become thriving "communities" where people talk about whatever is on their
collective minds. They also engage in heated discussions, form alliances,
and do all the sorts of things people used to do in "real" communities.
Distance and geographic location don't matter. Some of the most prolific
posters are from as far away as Australia and New Zealand.
There are still plenty of glitches in this whole new system. There
is information overload, a growing "spam" (electronic junk mail) problem,
and some people abuse the relative anonymity of the web to treat others
online like they would never treat people in person.
The fact still is that at the start of this new millennium we can
quickly find any information we want and we can easily communicate with just
about anyone in the world. People who once were isolated can now work from
their homes and be as socially active as they want to be. Groups that once
had trouble organizing and making themselves heard now have entirely new
ways and means to get things done. News is disseminated instantly and can be
reacted to instantly.
I once said in an editorial that if fat people and their admirers
voted in a block, size discrimination would be eradicated within six months.
I still believe that, and with size acceptance communities building on the
net and the web, with fat people becoming ever more educated, we have a real
chance of making it happen.