Change
November 9th, 2008
Its happening people. Whether you like it or not or whether you choose to believe it or not… the world is going somewhere fast. I couldn’t tell you for certain when it started. It took millions of years for our evolutionary forefathers to crawl from the primordial soup and walk upright. It took millions more for that being to develop the usage of fire. Then tens of thousands more to create the wheel.
But in only five thousand years since that first life altering invention by mankind… we have accomplished the world and beyond. In scientific output alone we now measure the time between great innovations and discoveries by the day or week…and not by the century as was the case for most of human existence. Society too is advancing at an alarming rate. Recently it (as well as every other sector of life) has undergone a fundamental change with the introduction of the internet. Not everything about these changes are pleasant, easy or even understood. But for certain this change is happening and it is up to our generation to pass the tests the world gives us and adapt.
I couldn’t figure out how to address the bevy of issues that will confront us in the future so I decided to write up a list of questions and put them to you. Pick one and comment… enjoy!!
- Society and Culture
- The youth of today are more sexualized and enabled than ever before. What responsibility do we have as a society or as individuals to address this problem? Does it need to be addressed at all?
- Are we all vain? What does the rise of the online social network do to the offline human network?
- The Questions of Prop 8. What is the status of the modern relationship? What does monogamy and marriage mean to you?
- From slavery to the presidency in 150 years. What is racism today? Has it evolved or exterminated or just morphed?
- Science and Technology
- Think about where we were medically 40 years ago. Where will we be 40 or 50 years from now? Do you think there are limits in what medical technology can accomplish?
- Utopia. What is it… Can we achieve it?
- Green You. What does “being green” mean to you and how do you think it affects the big picture?
- Green Them. What company/product/brand makes you think “green?”
- Politics and The Global World
- Yay Obama! Can this man deliver? (editorial note: I think he can) What is the future of the american presidency?
- Democracy vs Communism: Round 2. China uses capitalistic communism to succeed and India is succeeding in spite of its beurocratic democracy.. Who are you cheering for?
- Future Unknown. What is the state of the globalized world…are we going the way of the Brittish Empire? If so is there a way to get back on track?
- Who has the oil? What are we doing about a finite resource that is increasingly vital in the growth and modernization of a world that is rapidly growing and rapidly modernizing?
2 Responses to “Change”
By Sam on Nov 10, 2008
I think that one very large, underlying problem exists that I feel has an impact, whether it be minor or crippling, on each and every one of these topics.
Religion.
In our modern society, I feel that the role of religion must fundamentally be redifined, if not (and this is ideal, to me) done away with. A person who- in this same age where we are more connected then ever before and current science and technology have evolved to the point where we have more information available to us then ever before on where we came from, where we are going and even what, exactly we are- can honestly say they literally believe that, at one point in time men lived to be 800 years old, and in boats that took each and every one of the myriad millions of species on this great Earth to ride the high tide of God’s watery wrath, or who think that a man was reanimated from the dead, or that a burning bush was capable of intelligent conversation needs a hard, sudden, open-handed slap to the face.
That was a Woolf-esque sentence length. Apologies.
My point is this: What we have accomplished as a race, despite the fact that religion has exerted a crippling force upon our development, both as a global society and as a being capable of great thought and technological industry is truly astounding. What could we have accomplished, and in what time frame, if we weren’t crusading, bashing each other’s heads in with blunt objects, or blowing each other up with slightly more advanced, but still very blunt objects? How many times could we have gone to the moon? What planets could we be currently colonizing? How might the funds and resources of the world be distributed if insitutions like the Catholic church didn’t control massive portions of such things, with a very limited view of how and why to distribute them?
I honestly don’t know. All of this is speculation, of course. Surely, as humans, we can always find a reason to bash each other’s heads in with blunt objects, but one of the most important and immediate actions we must take is to phase out religion as a motivator for any of our actions, whether personal or, more importantly, political. A government run on an irrational notion of faith in religion will be about as efficient as my butt after a round of Taco Bell- burning and running. Look at China, as you say, and their spectactular, secular success.
This, I feel, is one of the major issues facing us today. Religion has moved from an old-fashioned very simple-minded approach to explain what we don’t understand to a basis for discrimination of our peers and seperation of the world’s peoples.
I could go on here for a while, but I shan’t. My gas is really bad and I’m sharing the small space of the computer room with a co-teacher whom I don’t think would appreciate my sashmi-toned butt music.
Anyway, how’s life, dude? I’m home soon, might be taking a road trip to the Cali-area.
By Jenny on Nov 24, 2008
This sounds cliche but we are living at a really crucial time in history.
The same way that Great Britain experienced hegemonic decline, the United States is experiencing it today. The previous transition was peaceful since Great Britain was obliterated during WWII and the US sortof shared a common interest in carrying out the “empire” dream.
Where I’m going with this…
the decline of the United States as a hegemon (mainly due to the economic crisis that has affected the globe, starting wars we felt were necessary, general ignorance..) is an issue that Obama will have to deal with. Bush refused to “go down” without a fight. Obama seems more interested in negotiating. We’ll see how that goes… going into Afghanistan doesn’t sound like a good idea. But I’m sure he knows what he’s doing..(?)
As for China; I’m not sure to what extent we should really worry. We definitely shouldn’t write them off as backwards since they have advanced technologically, militarily, and (of course) economically. But I’m not sure we can exactly see them as a huge threat because of the whole resource issue..
hm.
A story for another time