In your youth you see yourself as part of the future. As you get older the future is for other - younger - people and for those not yet born. Still, it is the focus of all your hopes and dreams. Not just for your own children and family but for all of humanity in which you feel you have a stake, alive or dead. But what is humanity without that which makes it human? This is the question for the future.
The idea of progress has been one that we have bought into, in this country, certainly since the eighteenth century enlightenment. It is a less certain concept now. What exactly does progress mean? Whatever it is, does it benefit all humanity and how do we know? What are the benefits of modern life compared to that of previous times and for whom? Maybe we should start by asking: could the present be better? Of course it could but could it be better without great difficulty? Also yes and consequently the future with it. So why isn’t it?
This does not involve the benefit of hindsight. My first year science teacher told us about global warming in 1970. She was a scientist, but not one at the cutting edge. She was a teacher in a suburban school. The science of global warming must have been quite advanced for her to be familiar with it. That was fifty years ago, half a century and there are powerful people to this day who are either ignorant of this, or culpable for, an insatiable, self-serving lust for power and wealth which is willing to sacrifice everything and anything on the altar of their own interests.
Such disregard for the future and for disadvantaged people in the present is surely inhuman. The material poverty and accompanying spiritual desertification which blights the lives of the more affluent are the price we pay for allowing the runaway train that is our economic system to get out of control. It has wrecked our environment, carried off our compassion and burned our resources.
Maybe the use of the word ignorant above is pejorative. Even the knowledge of the smartest people is limited. None of us has the intellectual capacity to know enough to make the important decisions on our own. The “success” of the human race stems from our social skills; our knowledge is socially constructed. The problem is that many of us are prepared to subordinate our better judgement to those who exhibit certainty. It seems that we are prepared to do this even when it is apparent that it is not in our best interests. Why?
This goes to the heart of the question of our humanity. Are we merely herd animals who will follow those who exhibit aggression most successfully or can we be more? Is humanity a static thing or does it develop? For us as individuals a fulfilling life is one in which our personal development is central. Does this then not apply collectively? If the future is going to be one in which more people are able to realise a greater part of their human potential we will need to share more of the decisions that determine the conditions in which we live. How do we do that?
My suggestion would be to try something that has never been tried before: democracy. Okay, I’m being provocative but also sincere. Democracy is one of the most over used and least understood words in the political lexicon. If you are of the opinion that we currently live in a democracy ask yourself: what democratic activity have you been involved in recently?
If you are one of the minority who have engaged in some kind of activism, ask yourself what impact did it have? Perhaps you’ve taken part in some kind of consultation. Did it make any difference or do you even know the outcome?
Modern democracy is even more of an illusion than the original Greek version that excluded women and slaves. It at least, was effective for those who were included. Ask most people what democracy is and they are likely to talk about voting. Great, but how many people vote and does it really change anything much when most political thought is framed by preconceptions arising from a manufactured view of the world which sees economics as a science conforming to certain rules, as if they were laws of nature, like gravity itself. It is ironic that people who hold this view are willing to challenge gravitational hegemony but not that of the perceived laws of economics. Is it a surprise that so few people vote?
Add to this the diminution of political power, in recent times, in favour of the economy and we can see that democracy is left looking ineffectual in the face of over-weaning, voracious and unaccountable economic power. The important decisions are not made by citizens or politicians. They don’t even know what the questions are or that the decisions are being made.
If we are to have a better future this has to change. We need strategies that will ameliorate the consequences of climate change. Coincidentally, these will, most effectively, be the measures that enrich our lives, allowing us to grow and prosper in the ways that nature equips us to do. We must become more determined and more sufficient as individuals and as communities. We don’t all have to start keeping goals but we must be more proactive in the material and organisation of our own lives and of those around us. And yes, more of us do need to grow more of our own food, generate more of our own energy and just consume less.
Most of all, we need to develop a democracy which is responsive to and critically aware of the collective will of our communities.