How Certain is our Future?
It’s an interesting question. There are indicators that we’re doing well–low unemployment, steady economic growth, stable economy, well-educated population, etc. There are indicators that we’re not doing well–high rates of gun violence, periodic terror attacks, social injustice, divisive politics, and so on.
From where you stand specifically, your worldview will influence how you answer the question. But what if we were to look at the society overall and trends that traditionally have indicated whether or a society will succeed or fail?
Here are a couple of perspectives:
The Path of Failed States
There are specific leading indicators that will provide warnings regarding the imminent failure of a society. [link url=”http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/12/opinions/us-following-path-of-unstable-countries-sciutto/index.html” title=”This article by Jim Sciutto”] includes the usual list of known failed states: Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, etc. Then, the author poses the question to Director of National Security James Clapper regarding whether or not some of these leading indicators are present in the US. Clapper said yes.
The indicators that most concern Clapper revolve around loss of faith in U.S. institutions–legal institutions, the rule of law, protection of citizen’s liberty, and loss of privacy.
Some of the issues surrounding liberty and privacy are things that we gave up voluntarily to lower the risk of terrorism. But we certainly need to do continuous self-examinations to restrict the restrictions and keep them from going too far. But with regard to our institutions of government and the rule of law, that’s a very complex issue with no simple solutions.
NASA’s Perspective
[link url=”http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/heres-how-nasa-thinks-society-will-collapse/441375/?utm_source=atlfb” title=”NASA also has done research”] on indicators that precede societal failure. From their perspective, two issues have primacy: economic inequality and depletion of natural resources.
NASA has found that economic stratification into elites and masses is extremely hazardous–think current political terminology of ‘the billionaires’ and ‘the one percent’ to identify with the issues. This stratification, which is currently happening in the U.S. according to the data, is one sure precursor of extensive societal turmoil that could lead to collapse.
Depletion of natural resources is an issue we’ve covered many times. This depletion covers a broad range of resources–loss of groundwater, loss of healthy farmland, ocean acidification, ocean over-harvesting, etc.
We have not yet addressed most of these issues in any meaningful way. To avoid the specter of NASA’s vision, we would need to develop conservation plans on a level we can’t yet envision, including effective water management plans, sincere efforts to transition to clean energy, and so forth.
Once Again, We Have Options
From these two perspectives, it’s clear that we have challenges to face if we want our nation to survive and thrive. But if we really want that to happen, we need to get serious about healing the many divides that afflict our country. We need to decide to ditch the showmanship and hateful rhetoric in our politics and simply use public policy that works.
What those policies are is not a mystery. There are policies that result in economic opportunity and equality and those that make those issues worse. There are policies that grow economies and those that destroy them. There are sustainable development policies and destructive development policies. There are policies that address climate change in a mature manner and those that don’t.
These are the changes that we need to address, and soon. Best wishes to us all.
Learn more:
— [link url=”http://www.ted.com/talks/chrystia_freeland_the_rise_of_the_new_global_super_rich” title=”The Rise of the New Super-Rich”]
— [link url=”http://edmdigest.com/adaptation/the-professionalization-of-emergency-management/consequences-of-societal-breakdown/” title=”Consequences of Societal Breakdown”]
— [link url=”https://amuedge.com/privacy-vs-security-the-debate-that-cannot-end/” title=”Privacy vs. Security”]
— [link url=”https://amuedge.com/are-we-now-in-a-civil-war/” title=”Are we now in a Civil War?”]
Comments are closed.