How We Imagined The Future Before
- Thread starter MapleDog
- Start date
I was more of an optimist 20 years ago. Our consumer/financial system doesn't seem to be responding to calls for responsibility for our behaviour. It seems to me that we are acting like a kid after Halloween, a bag of candy that is disappearing rapidly, but we shovel it down as quickly as we can for fear someone else will get some before it runs out.
Despite the fact that people in some parts of the globe are incredibly fortunate and wealthy, with amazing educational possibilities, the education doesn't seem to be catching. Overcome by mass marketing and hysteria about self enrichment. Ya, I've gone pessimist.
Sooner or later humanity is bound to realize that vastly enriching a privileged few at the expense of the majority simply does not work as a social or economic model. Since very few of the ultra wealthy will surrender their status willingly, it will have to be taken from them; however I expect that day will come eventually just as so many other basic rights such as sexual equality and the right of all citizens to vote have come. And I am not talking about force here. There are perfectly good democratic mechanisms for a more egalitarian sharing of the wealth. It will come because it has to come; the current system is simply unworkable in a democratic society.
And how we imagine it now.
Are you optimist about the future,or pessimist?
I'm an optimist. I don't think the changes into the future with be as dramatic
as either of the two photos above. The changes will be small but significant,
like upgrading an old neighbourhood.
The houses are still there, but the windows are new (as are the furnaces &
water heaters using modern technology) and the cars in the driveway are
still there, but use less fuel and have less character, etc...and at first glance
you might not notice the difference in pic's spread 20yrs apart, but they're
there.
The neighbourhood will still light up at night, but the homes and street lights
will use a fraction of the power they do now. More zeroscaping to replace
lawns to save on water and time. More trees to lessen the use of air
conditioning in the heat, and other things we can't picture at this point that
will be common sense in the years to come.