DUMMERSTON, Vt. - Americans are supposed to be an optimistic, can-do people, but no one seems to be talking about the future with starry-eyed wonder any more.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll conducted last week found nearly two-thirds of respondents saying they don't believe that life for their children's generation will be better than it has been for them.
Only 27 percent think the United States is headed in the right direction and 58 percent believe the war in Iraq will not end in success. Of those who think the nation is not on the right track, 81 percent believe its part of a longer-term decline.
"This is just a horrendous set of numbers," said Peter D. Hart, one of the pollsters who conducted the survey. He called the national mood "as dank and depressing as I've ever seen."
By way of comparison, when a similar question about the direction of the nation was asked in a 1956 Gallup poll, only 3 percent questioned whether the nation was enjoying prosperity and just 8 percent doubted that things would keep getting better indefinitely.
Granted, in 1956, people were dreaming big. There was talk then of four-day, 30-hour workweeks and living standards that would double by 1976. Never mind that this belief in a more abundant, more prosperous future petered out by the late 1960s. What happened to that kind of optimism?
Granted, there is much to be depressed about today - things that the futurists never dream of. Global warming. The export of American jobs to other countries. The ever-increasing national debt and trade deficit. Rising energy prices and dwindling supplies of oil and gas. Imperial wars without end in Iraq and Afghanistan and the threat of more wars and more terror attacks. A democracy that is all but broken. A growing gap between rich and poor.
The optimism that has long been the hallmark of America has given way to the realization that our nation is facing many difficult problems and that our leaders haven't a clue how to deal with them.
So that leads to the next question. Is our future going to be environmental collapse and violent competition for the remainder of the world's resources? Or will we free ourselves from the downward spiral into chaos and find for ourselves a new way to care for each other and the fragile planet we all share?
In my part of the world, there are individuals and groups addressing these questions and developing solutions for them. They're starting community gardens and teaching people how to can vegetables. They're developing ways to use less energy and getting towns and businesses to participate. They are preparing for the possibility of food and energy disruptions and building community oriented solutions.
More and more people around the country know that if we are to find a way to cope with the many problems that face us, we can't count on our political leaders for help. That's because our society is structured for the quick fix, not for the long term consequences. Our economy is structured for endless growth, not sustainability. And our politics is structured to preserve the status quo, and address new problems with old thinking and rhetoric.
Can we change this? We must, because our nation, and the world at large, is heading into a turbulent time that demands creativity, innovation, flexibility and hard work from all of us. The choice, quite simply, is between chaos or community.
Randolph T. Holhut has been a journalist in New England for more than 25 years. He edited "The George Seldes Reader" (Barricade Books). He can be reached at randyholhut@yahoo.com.
but no one seems to be talking about the future with starry-eyed wonder any more.
Starry eyed wonder- in my younger days this was referred to as pollyannaism.
George W. Bush is a renowned pollyanna, he thinks he is always right and that staying the course will eventually bear fruit. George W. Bush remains stubbornly mired in the romantic idea of American superiority and relevance.
Our environment is in danger and perhaps there are irreversible trends that have advanced too far for recovery, but the collapse is not yet apparent.
In respects the environment is improving, air quality is no longer declining and in some respects has improved, water quality has improved and the most egregious forms of industrial pollution have been abated.
This shows the erratic and uncertain nature of environmentalism, when a problem is abated and environmental danger is relieved the political will to advance is sharply diminished.
Until and unless environmentalism marries capitalism, its future will depend on fickle public opinion.
A few words about capitalism first, not the crony capitalism that exists today, but a visionary form of capitalism that matches labor and resources to create wealth.
A capitalism that recognizes the equity stake of labor as just as legitimate as that of the capitalist and management.
A capitalism that recognizes that resources are not "gifts from God," but the property of the people ocupying the region where the resources occur.
This capitalism would pay a fair price for resources and so would be financially motivated to be frugal and respectful of the resoucres and the earth from which they were taken.
It would a capitlaism mindful of all the inputs of labor, fuel, fertilizers and other resources needed to produce marketable products.
The pricing would reflect the true cost of all the inputs and would depend less on created demand driven by advertising and more on mass marketing and the intrinsic value of the product.
I will go out on a limb here and say that the beginnings of this system can be seen in China, which despite its manifest environmental degradation is moving fastest and most surely toward an economic system that alleviates poverty and conserves resources.
Optimism in today's world requires gimlet eyed scepticism and steely determination, but is still possible.
We must also accomodate ourselves to the increasingly obvious fact that China and not America is pointing the way to the future.
Robert Chapman
Brooktondale, New York
by
Robert Chapman (28 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 556 comments)
on Saturday, August 5, 2006 at 10:49:38 AM
1 comments
How would you rate this?
You must be logged in (if signed up) to do ratings.
It's free to signup! And easy. And takes just a minute or two....
Must Read (
Well Said (
News (
Touching (
Funny (
Supported (
Interesting (
Inspiring (
Valuable (
