could "vintage men" change the world?

The other day something very nice, unusual happened. I relived old memories from a world, which appears far from the world we live in today. Today's world made of individual strive and self-fulfillment.

It seems to me our world is full of illusions and unsatisfied desires. In a globe of social networks, online newspapers, instant messaging, blogs etc. a great share of our reality is lived through a digital world. I recently came back from a long stay in Mexico. While I was there, absorbed in amazing nature, surrounded by simple people living a traditional life, It appeared to me how well I was doing without being connected to cyber-space. I was actually happy that my email was attacked by a virus, because I was not able, even though I sometimes would have wanted, to access my mail box. Just as a drug abuser is not able to obtain a drug. When you know you are doing better off without, but still feel that need of something. And during my trip, I was wondering what kind of need I am satisfying when I am online? Which desires do I try to fill going on facebook looking at what other people are doing, what new posts they put, or new people that added me? What kind of fulfillment am I replacing by accessing a virtual world?

I felt compelled to dig deeper into my mind, and after a long time without even touching the Internet, and through meditation, I finally found my answers. I felt none of my desires or needs are fulfilled through internet. At the contrary, when I was disconnected to the world, my inner self was in harmony. The massive amount of information that attack me every time I turn on the computer, appear to create some kind of chaos, or disorder in my mind. So my conclusion was to try to decrease my use of internet, and especially social networks, such as facebook.
I feel facebook creates a virtual reality which soon becomes a spiderweb. It is easy to access it and like it in the beginning, it is like entering an entirely new world, but it is very easy to get stuck in it. It is easy to get addicted to it. A friend of mine even had to search for professional psychological help, where she was advised to not touch facebook for half a year. This is an example of how ultimately, too much cyber use can lead to psychological damage, or at least a temporary state of unbalance.

I also feel this world, due in part to Internet, is becoming more and more individual. No one appears to have time to dedicate to others. Everyone seems occupied with its own business, interests or other. Little time or effort is spent on making other people happy. The values the world used to have, values such as solidarity, empathy, compassion seem to be replaced by egocentrism, self-interests, hedonism. I read that during a scientific research it was proved that Chinese university students in the USA have a mind which can move from one world to the other with an incredible ease. Not only could they swap languages in a second, but also different value system. They are individual and hedonistic with their American friends, while they are respectful and modest with their family. And they are not schizophrenics or hypocrites; their minds are really only capable of functioning in both ways without contradiction. Images done by magnetic resonance show how these students, when being asked to feel like Americans, elaborate concepts such as "mother", "myself" and "other person" in different parts of the brain. When they are asked to feel Chinese, the same concepts overlap each other in the same area.

It might be the case that we are today creating a brain which are capable of operating in both worlds, the virtual one and the real one. As well as some, in parallel, can move between different cultures and  system values. To have a bicultural mind able to mutate the architecture of the brain could prove to be necessary in our fast changing inter-connected world. It might even turn out to be such a valuable function for success that, in the long run, it might turn out to be a reproductive advantage. Individuals which grow up with two cultures can be a bridge rather than to be assimilated to one cutlure. And this gives them an extraordinary advantage, both as a mental openness, and as professional possibilities.

Let us now return to where I started. The other day a part of the roof of my cabriolet vintage car broke
so I went to look for a store which could repair the small hole. I was recommended to go to a nearby store and when I entered the small craftsman shop I was welcomed by two over seventy-year-old
"vintage" men. After explaining my need and showing them my car I asked them for the price of the repair. They told me "nothing". I asked "how much is nothing?". "Nothing" they repeated and pointed at another man outside the store who had had his leather jacket repaired by them without paying a cent.
I was almost chocked by this experience. I must add that I did offer to pay, at least to cover for their expenses, but they insisted, so I didn't.
After this experience I realized there are still some people left in the world, doing things for others without wanting something in return. Rare people like this with a solidary mind, not putting money or self-interest as the highest value in the value system.

I wish the world could consist of more people like those two old "vintage" men, so that the real world can be a wonderful one full of empathy and compassion. This way we will not be forced to hide away in the virtual world, always in search for a non-existent fulfillment.