Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Thought For The Night
What is our purpose here on planet earth? Are our grandkids going to be working until they are seventy pulling a nine to five shift or longer in the year 2080 when they would rather be playing bridge? Seriously.
It seems that we don't have many positive future goals anymore. Since Kennedy announced plans to put a man on the moon by the end of the sixties, and we achieved it, what forward progress are we aspiring to that is positive that people can rally behind? We have goals based on negativity; end global warming, stop terrorism. These are all framed on stopping a social ill.
I would like to see us aspire (to be geeky a bit) for a Star Trek the Next Generation kind of world where technology provided everybody's basic needs, and you chose a career path based on what you enjoyed or wanted to do, rather than spending 50 years selling wallpaper because the groceries don't pay for themselves.
Since we are already in massive debt due to the Mess O' Potamia, why not through a hundred billion dollars at a research project into cold fusion or developing flying cars. Can you say that money would be any more wasted than what we have been doing in Iraq?
Part of what keeps the unequal, unfair system going is that people are too busy trying to eke out an existence to have time to ponder where we are going. Is just holding a job, watching American Idol, popping a brewski all that we are aspiring to as a civilization?
To get geeky once more, in the novel Dune, the people on a desert planet carefully conserved water, sacrificed plenty in order to have enough water to transform the planet into a place that supported forests and gardens.
I am willing to sacrifice in order for my children and their children to reach a goal. This is the experience of most parents who save, do without, put their kids through college. The goal isn't for their kids to sit in staff meetings for 3 hours to decide if they want to make a minor edit of their corporate logo. It's for them to be able to have all their needs met.
Perhaps a political candidate who shares a long term vision that people could rally around would not only gain wide support, but improve the condition of humanity all at the same time.
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