Wanted: A Plan for the Future: We have shown that we can do it -- so why don't we?

     Artemis II just splashed down upon returning to the Earth. The mission had a few hiccups but, in general, it went well. It had a goal, that goal had various components to make it happen, and we set it in motion. Other segments of the program are expected to happen — and I hope they do. Personally, I had always expected the first lunar colony around 1980 — but priorities shifted a lot after the 1960s.

     How did the priorities shift? Why did we say “well, we did as Kennedy challenged us to do — we had humans walking on the moon before the end of the 1960s — so that’s it?” A lot of it (in my opinion) had to do with the myriad numbers of problems that we had to deal with on the planet Earth. They existed in large numbers. And they still do. Of late, it seems that we are actually heading backward on a number of the areas that we seemed to make progress on in the 1960s and 1970s.

     We diverted our energies and focus from expansion into space to use those resources on problems on Earth? But did that happen?

A Shift from Leadership towards a Goal to a Government of Band-aids

     This is admittedly just my opinion, but why did this shift occur? I think that an emphasis on polls is one area of change. Rather than having a long-term view for the country and policies, the results of polls on particular issues became of more urgency. This is similar to the movement of businesses from long-term development and vision to quarterly reports.

     Ever since political parties developed in the late 1780s, there has been competition for voters such that one party (almost always only two primary parties in the US) will “win” over another. Each party has their “platform” which is a listing of their published priorities about issues. In theory, the voters will review those platforms and decide upon the party closest to their own points-of-view.

     Each individual legislator, or candidate, will have variations in their priorities from the political party platform. But, over my lifetime, the platform has been used less and less. This is true both during the election campaign and after the election has occurred. Once again, this means a shift towards the most hotly contested issues at the moment. Short term conquers long term.

     Perhaps this is an aspect of societal reduction of attention span?

The Journey towards Goals produces many Benefits

     In the 1960s, the US had a goal as a country — land humans on the moon. Note that this goal also had some effect on other countries. As part of that goal, we boosted our education system and encouraged both general learning and STEM focus. The government worked closely with private industry to solve problems needed for the goal. New materials. Transistors. Continued improvement in what would be known as computer technology. Medical instrumentation and monitoring. Communication. Cordless Tools. And so forth. Just do an Internet search on “things developed as a consequence of the space race of the 1960s”. You may be amazed.

     Was this due to the specific goal? Was it that we were challenging space? No. We had a focus. The goal might have been to establish a working laboratory on the ocean floor in the Pacific. It might have been to go a year without a war. It might have been to have accessible, healthy, drinking water for the world. The more general the positive goal, the more general the needs and the more widespread the benefits. The more difficult the goal, the more possibilities for side-effects. Note that negative goals (such as wars) also have spinoffs for developments that CAN be used for peace but, overall, are just not worth the price in human lives.

     Goals can also be very specific. Let’s find a cure for the “common cold”. Let’s eliminate obesity within the country. Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center went after the guinea worm disease and have almost eradicated it over the course of 40 years. Let’s cure cancer! Specific goals have side benefits also though those benefits are less likely to be widespread.

Goals are necessary

     Can you specify a national goal at present? For the USA? For your own country? I can’t for the USA.

     Oh, there are various “band-aid” approaches. The Affordable Care Act helped to decrease bankruptcies and the number of people without access to healthcare in the US — but it was only a bandaid on the road to taking proper care of all the people within the US. There are various regulations that have been put into effect (or, lately, repealed) that address an improvement in CO2 production but not a national goal. Please don’t think that I disparage band-aids. They can be useful in delaying final problems (even death). But they aren’t addressing the goal and they don’t have nearly the number of benefits.

     What will happen when (not if) AI and automation shift the economy such that we have many more people than available jobs? Climate change will create great shifts in populations, crops, living circumstances, and needs. As education improves and we shift away from manual agriculture the birthrate decreases. That means global populations are aging and need more general care. Can we? Are we prepared?

What happens without a goal?

     Read the newspaper. Read, or watch, the various news streams. Check out corporate media. The reality that we need to fact-check items that we are told is, in itself, a very important reflection on the health of society.

     If a person’s house burns down, the neighborhood comes bearing casseroles and blankets. These may be people that you have never met — but they come. A tornado hits a town and you can find people helping others all through the town. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, stranger helped stranger and grew to know each other.

     Localized disasters rarely bring about long term changes in behaviors but they do show what people can do when they work together.

The specific positive goal isn’t as important as just having a goal

     People can (and do) argue that space exploration is not important. I disagree — but that isn’t important. The goal is what is important. Goals give purpose. Goals give direction. Goals foster unity rather than divisiveness.

Give me goals. Give me leaders who are leading the country toward positive goals.

Give our children futures.

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Unto the Seventh Generation: short-term thinking versus sustainable life

 There are a number of First Nation quotes concerning the matter, but the most famous quote about the “seventh generation” comes from the Great Law of Peace of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy: “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”

This quote, and philosophy, does not apply to every First Nation, African tribe, Australian aboriginal group, etc. But the quote, inclusive of a much closer association with the land as stewards rather than possessors, does apply to many.

As part of “colonization”, a focus on economic gain, as well as power structures and control, soon dismissed, and overcame, any such far-reaching philosophy. Short-term results became a paramount value of colonial societies and it continues to be embedded in our cultures to this day.

“The seventh generation.” Right now, we have a long list of “generations” that have been named. (It used to just be “in my mother’s time” or “in my great-uncle’s time”.) Modern usage groups people into 20-year “generations”. The Generations presently talked about are the Lost, Greatest, Silent, Baby Boom, Generation X, Millennial (or Generation Y), Z (or iGen), Alpha, and Beta generations. The boundaries are specific for statistical purposes but fuzzy for self-application (such as, “I am Gen Z”).

The Millennial Generation folks (presently the largest population group) are considered to have been born in the years 1981 through 1996 and Generation Z from 1997 through 2010 (so, as of the publication of this newsletter, ages 15 through 28). Since actual decisions are difficult to pin to a specific generation (in spite of fingers pointed at “Boomers”) it is difficult to say how many generations since a decision has been made. Certainly, the Gen Z people are within the seventh generation ages to consider and, globally, Gen Z are presently saying (in less polite terms) “your decisions have screwed up our lives and we want it corrected now”. They are within that window of first generation to seventh generation and they recognize that they were not taken into consideration when the decisions, which have resulted in the current world situation, were made.

People within the earlier generations looked to the quarterly report and definitely did not look to the seventh generation. Note that it is not the ENTIRE generations that are responsible — many have actively protested against a short-term mentality — but the decision makers and those actively making the rules have done a very poor job when they planned (if there was any plan) their present with its effects on current days. With the Millennials in the plurality and the Gen Zs struggling to enter into a healthy economy, there will be much pressure world-wide to clean up the messes that have resulted.

“Messes”? What “messes”?

• Climate/Ecology — short-term use for short-term benefits, with almost no long-term views, has directly led to accelerated climate change, overwhelming pollution, species destruction, and a general lessening of the ability of the planet to support us.

• Economic — general resources have been encouraged to be concentrated into the hands of the few as the goal of some type of “game” and the world is left with millions of people lacking food, clothing, education, security and realistic hopes for the future.

• Education — Many in the past have said that our children, and their education, is of the greatest importance. But there has been no follow-through with the provision of adequate resources and support for needed for proper education. In the US there is a majority of adults with the equivalent of less than a fifth grade reading level. The education system is currently left to rely on those who steadfastly look beyond their own welfare and needs in order to try to fill in positions for teachers and librarians in overpopulated schools and classrooms.

• Divisiveness — based on economic and power interests, countries and people have been deliberately encouraged to compete against each other for dwindling resources rather than collectively to improve conditions.

Much damage has been done, and there is a lot of anger, but if we can collectively use that anger to create healthier paths to the future, life can truly become the “better place” toward which politicians say we are moving toward.

Culture shifts are very difficult but they are even more difficult when not attempted. It is up to all of us to strive for a change that reaches for, and creates, a better future.

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