Post #97 ended on a very somber note. Yet we have witnessed huge, intentional decimations in the 20th century: World War I, multiple national revolutions, Stalin’s purges, the Great Depression, World War II with the Nazi Holocaust, the Cultural Revolution of Mao Tsetung, the Killing Fields of Cambodia (1.7 – 2.5 million deaths in a population of roughly 8 million people), and other genocidal calamities.
What will set the “Great Decimation of the 21st Century” apart from all prior decimations is that this will be the result of over-population, not intentional social, political or economic-financial revolution. And, it will be global, affecting everyone, everywhere. Cities will still exist, but may not function well as so many people who maintain the infrastructure will no longer be on the job.
Business as usual? No, I don’t think so. As a futurist, what is to come is so immense, so massive and so perilous that there exist no solutions, no remedies, no preventative procedures, social policies or economic power to stop what is to come. The assumption, “Everything is fine!” will be heard until the very last hours when there is no alternative but to ask, “What do we need to do to recover from this global disaster once it has completed its terminal cycle?”
Will the Millennial Generation rebuild the me-ism empires of the Baby Boomer, X, and Y generations? No, surely they will not. Already they are jaundiced from the self-interest of those generations. Those generations knew better but did nothing, fulfilling Edmund Burke’s quote, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing.” And not much has been done, except as we see in these late hours as signatory efforts for the environment, and nothing for those with less.
Knowing, or rather speculating, about these things, let us plan for the recovery that will take place after the cataclysms have completed their cycle. How would a sustainable future become a reality? What must we do now to prepare for that possibility? Keep in mind that the hallways of courts, councils, agencies, state capitols and congress will be vast, echoing and unoccupied. On the other hand, there will be thousands of local communities with sufficient people of responsible character, intelligence and education who, if they were given a design process for sustainable family dynamics, sustainable education and health care, could rebuild in terms of socially sustainable societies, democratic governments and economies. Let us continue in Post #99.