As of my 90th birthday, a few observations on
the intervening 90 years:
Population
World population in 1923 - 1,936,077,000!
World population 2011 = 7,021,836,029
U.S. population 1923 =111,947,000
U.S. population 2011 =311,600,000
This astounding rate of population increase is at the root of many
of the most complex problems humanity faces. And this despite World War II, the
Korean War, Vietnam and the current “war” on terror that has killed millions.
How many of humanity’s problems can be traced to this fact alone.
When will we hold religions that promote population growth to account?
In the face of this imminent threat we have the Pope expressing
his deep concern for the poor, who are the major product of overpopulation, yet
fighting the only effective means of reducing population--birth control and
abortion. And this church is supposed to be a moral arbiter. Put this together with Muslim and
conservative protestant religions and you have identified a major threat to
human survival.
Technology
My
stepfather was born in a covered wagon going from Iowa to Alberta Canada. He lived
to see humans on the moon. That is, of course, an immense change, probably greater
than any since the discovery of the new world. Yet, Alvin Toffler in his book Future Shock, argued that the rate of change humans experience is itself
accelerating. I have asked myself what in my lifetime could possibly exceed
what my stepfather witnessed. While the full impact has yet to be realized, molecular
biologists have begun reconstructing life forms by manipulating DNA. As this
expands, humanity will be taking its evolution into its own hands. For good and
bad, assuming our species survives all that it faces, this capacity portends an
immense change both in humans and in their society.
Cultural change
The
comparatively simple American culture of my youth became a paragon of excess
and waste as the world’s resources flowed to the United States following World
War II. New clothing was deliberately shredded to produce blue jeans with holes
in them as the witless fashions of excess took hold. The average house expanded
from two bedrooms to as high as ten or eleven. William Whyte portrayed the sterility
of corporate life in his 1950 book The Organization Man and Sloan Williams’ The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit dramatized
this sterility.
In
this period of exceptional affluence we found that affluence was, in the end, a
kind of sickness and vacuity, which for want of purpose, has led to empire and continuous
war.
Science
The
one massive upbeat during the last 80 years has been science, as it has kept
humanity in creative touch with the real world we inhabit. In it we have seen
distant planets up close. It has unraveled our very being in the double helix.
It is making clear how much a part of the natural world we humans are. We have
yet to learn how to use the tools and methods of science to understand
ourselves sufficiently to curtail the barbarities we unleash upon ourselves.
Our
largest remaining enterprise is to understand deeply that we are our own worst
enemy and that we have to correct that before we perish at our own hands. This
is the extremely difficult task we have left to those who follow us and for
which we can give them little guidance.
With
this column I will begin writing on a less regular schedule than the biweekly
pattern I have observed for the last seven-plus years. Some of the vicissitudes
of old age, notably macular degeneration, have made reading and writing an increasingly
difficult task. I hope to continue posting about as often as I have been, just
not as regularly. Should this Center for Public Deliberation web site close, I
will continue to publish my thoughts and observations on my Blogspot blog
titled Temecula Valley Reflective
Liberal.
Finally,
I wish to thank Jerry and Maxine Ewig and Mark Brosius, who created this
website years ago as part of Howard Dean’s Democracy for America effort in the
Temecula Valley in California. Most especially I want to express my gratitude
for the editorial work of my wife Eleanor, which has greatly increased as my
eyesight has weakened. May humanity yet find a way to survive the conflicts
that evolution has built into it and realize its enormous capacity to
understand the near infinity of its universe and the complexity of itself.
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