"Urban Warfare."
A few days ago, I entered into a conversation with my boy about his future, about which careers might be appropriate for the world he might find work in once he eventually gets through the HSC and University.
I tried hard to project my mind forward seven plus years, tried to imagine how the world might be. I couldn’t! There are so many possible scenarios, most of them fraught, that I couldn’t answer his question. Once I could’ve! Once the world had an element of predictability about it. Two plus two usually equaled four. No longer.
Yet, upon reflection, perhaps there is more predictability about the world than I first thought. What things are predictable? One thing that can be relied upon is that capitalism will continue to flourish. Never has an economic system so suited basic human nature. Most humans are greedy, infinitely selfish and want to be superior to all others. The capitalist system caters for these ‘qualities’, encourages them. An example?
There was a car show from Britain on television recently that was featuring some sleek, gas-guzzling Ferrari or Maserati that costs over 200,000 pounds sterling. The audience was agog. Their eyes were filled with deep longing. Global warming was forgotten. They gasped at the 200 miles per hour top speed, the 5 seconds to get to 60 miles per hour. While Corporate Barons can get hold of the peasants’ money using such glinting entrapments, the capitalist system will continue to pollute and, like the tobacco companies, spread disinformation about the true effects of global warming (which they are now doing).
What else is predictable? Religion of course. In human nature there is a large reservoir of superstition. Religion caters to it, thrives upon it, gets rich and powerful upon it. The Pope (who the local media is nonsensically calling ‘The Holy Father’) is coming to Australia for some Youth Day. It is costing around 120 million dollars of taxpayers money and will cause huge disruption to Sydney.
Yes, the government is paying for the Catholic Church to indoctrinate the youth of Australia, to fill their minds with theological hocus-pocus and false promises. Of course, all over the world, in churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, similar indoctrination is going on. The world in seven or so years will still be riddled with religions which fanatically compete with each other for power and wealth.
Government is another predictable factor. Democracy will continue to decline and the new breed of right-wing professional politicians (the ones who do the bidding of the corporations and religious bodies and are found in most Western countries) will continue with their elitist self-promotion and war-mongering. America provides a blueprint. Politicians, aided by the media, will continue to fool the peasants that they live in a democracy when the fact is that such an idea is an illusion and, outside of Ancient Greece, always has been.
Given these three factors (of course there are others like nationalism, racial intolerance, etc) my prediction is that the world will be in a state of utter chaos in another seven years (this assumes nukes are not used in the interim). Global warming will markedly worsen as will food shortages, wars will be widespread as the haves use military force to try to continue with their exploitative imperialist economic system, the world financial system will have crashed (because much of it is based upon unsustainable borrowing), there will be urban warfare between the haves and the have-nots within each society, and religion will fraudulently push itself forward as the panacea for gathering human fear (which is an irony because it uses fear to confuse and convince converts).
I suggested to my boy that if he became a cleric, a military officer, a tax lawyer, a journalist with a price, or a career politician, he would probably be able to pick up paid work of some kind in the ugly world that is coming.
He was not impressed!
David G.
You paint a bleak picture and sad to say based on some very solid observations.
However, I would not count out the human species just yet. We humans are survivors. We have made it this far against some mighty tough odds.
My guess (or should I say hope) is we humans will somehow pull through.
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We’ve never really had such tough odds as we have now, David F!
Like you, I keep hoping that the worst won’t happen but the dominoes are already falling, I’m afraid. Cheers.
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Nothing wrong with a career in journalism. Late starts, early finishes and long lunches and all the time the researchers, editors and proofreaders are sorting out the 1500 you managed to type.
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Yeah, Lucy, sorting through the words to make sure that nothing that strongly points out the disastrous shortcomings of the capitalist system gets out there and spooks the peasants.
Brave New World!
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I just can’t imagine growing up today, when I look at what it was like in our days of youth.
But like us, those with views different than those manipulating the world will always be around and on the fringe of society.
Good Luck to your son, and I’m sure he will do well, no matter what he does!
Cheers from the usa!
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I know, what kind of world is it- where the best you could hope for your son or daughter: is a good elitist education and then a career in the elite service to empire? Of course there are other jobs potentially in the sciences that would help human-kind towards sustainable living; water, wind and solar for starters. Unless, as you say, nuclear war and the accompanying nuclear winter and radiation sickness take over the planet. Is that what was meant by “the meek” shall inherit the Earth?
My favorite quote of the week from the late, Great, George Carlin: ” Well, you know, they say if you scratch a cynic you find a disappointed idealist. And perhaps the flame still flickers a little, you know?”
http://www.avclub.com/content/node/42195/3
That is me too, The flicker still lives and sometimes I even dare to imagine a world the way I would have it -at least within the scope of my life – I try to make attainable goals. I just have to move toward my own ideal, me thinks. If the world ends in the meantime, it just will. I dont want it to end, that is for sure. It is just that for my entire adult life there has been the threat of nuclear annhilation and when I was 18, I realized I had to get over it if I was going to be able to function. So not to give a lady’s age away,.. let’s just say I have managed to function for the better part of an adult life while the Planet still turns. I agree David, the future has never been more uncertain. Or rather the certainty that is presenting itelf is not one that I want to surrender to. We need biodiversity to flourish and survive. Are we to be a Tower of Babel that destroys itself or learn that we all share one common interest which is: life as we know it on this planet? Beyond that I get too depressed, so I just am a good little human and choose hope for the future. : ) Peace out.
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Hey, Coffee, thanks for your kind wishes. The world is a better place because of you.
Grace, my head tells me that the future will not be good but, like you, my heart wishes otherwise.
What amazes me is that, overall, evil always triumphs! America’s decline over fifty years is a classic example.
We humans, genetically, are damaged goods.
Peace.
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Thank you for sharing the gist of your conversation with your son about his future. Heartbreaking, and makes me remember now why I was reluctant to bring a child into the world.
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There is always a danger in focusing only on the wide view. Be mindful that out forbears failings created the problems that seem so important today , and that our responsibility lies in the small day to day interactions. If we are mindful of their cascading effect we change for the better. A wise man once termed it the eightfold path.
Namaste.
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While ever the world is divided into a handful of evil rulers and billions of sheeple, nothing will ever change, Jonah!
How can it?
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A truth lies somewhere amongst the life of John Curtin and Al Gore’s the death of reason.
We seem mired in the complacency of wealth , in the 1800′s there seemed to be a passion for knowledge , every little town had its mechanics institute , people could aspire to be more than a train driver. The desire for social change was debated and leaders arose .
We now seemed stunned by the information flow , Carl Jung was prescient when he commented that machines enslave mankind while giving the illusion of freedom. Seen anybody recently willing to give up their mobile phone or car. He went on to the empowering of the spirit from the act of growing your own potatoes.
This is why challenges like the environmental devastation we have wrought are actually good , in doing the small things that are within our sphere of influence to undo the damage we reconnect with living and hopefully become more than sheeple , fed our opinion by the box in the corner telling us to kill all who are different.
The hope is always for a ripple effect . I am fortunate in that I live in a rural region filling with people who choose to live here , escapees from cities and stultifying ‘professional’ life , we share a joy of connecting as a community , through art , literature and craft. It is a reminder of the diversity and potential of us upright apes.
Starting to ramble so lets try this exercise , when considering the pros and cons of an issue use a fixed variable that the motivation is material greed , quite a clarifying lense.
On my 3rd revision of this comment and still can’t clarify the thought
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I live in a rural area too, Jonah, even do a bit of farming. Sure beats ugly, polluted cities.
The answer lies in the soil! Cheers.
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