The Future We Deserve..
After much procrastination on subject matter, I have decided to simply tackle the title. I am not a scientist nor do I dwell in academia, and so there will be no metrics, point-proving graphs, or reams of footnotes.
As I end my sixth decade on this lovely water world, the "future" has always been the most frustrating concept for me. Exciting and full of optimism, yet simultaneously dangerous and hopeless. An avid sci-fi reader when younger, the stories seemed almost mythological, as many were so prescient in their narrative and then voila.. came to be. For better or worse. Be it Verne's TV, or Orwell's Double-Speak. (Can you say “Net-Neutrality”?) Magical, yet "biblical" in the same breath. So, do we deserve what we have now? I would say that we pretty much always get what we deserve. (And all parents shout hallelujah!) Its always been, and will continue to be, in our very own hands. But is that too simplistic?
When it comes to the government we deserve, de Maistre had it right. I believe for the most part that we do. When a tidal wave wipes out your village, family, and everything you've known to exist, not so much. So to me, "we".. the collective in this case, will be divided. As history bears out, some will and some won't get what they deserve. Hasn’t this always been the case? The haves and the have-nots, via indentured servitude and/or slavery. Let them eat cake, from the ruling political class of the day. And the list goes on. Does anyone deserve to make $20M a year? I’m sure there are a few, but in general I would say no. However I can certainly say without equivocation that NOBODY (might be a few exceptions!) deserves to have a bomb dropped on their head. So I might want to re-phrase the statement, re-framing the argument of course, to: “Will I get the future I deserve”? I do not mean this in a selfish manner at all. If I want to see a world where everyone is properly fed, (surely a utopian fantasy for the foreseeable future, yet still worth striving for) then I must do what I can do to bring this about. If I just want to see how much “stuff” I can accumulate, then I will not be doing myself or the human race much of a service in the long run.
So as you can now see, the future IS a frustrating concept for me. I’m a musician who assumed 40 years ago that by the end of the century, at the latest, we would all be listening to this amazing electronic music because of technology. (The invention and availability of the synthesizer in particular) And I don’t mean pop music with funny sounds, although there has been some amazing stuff produced in that genre. But in music the “future” has always been there. Stockhausen, Zappa, Cage, etc. And like good-quality food, we deserve it.