Global Priorities in the 21st Century

First, the bad news:  the human race is in very, very serious trouble.  Millions lack even the most basic amenities of life, while billions more just scrape by.  Despite an already failing ecosystem billions more are on the way .  Thanks to the Bush administration, nuclear weapons proliferation is a problem again.  We're fouling our nest with pollutants, and not merely climate-destroying greenhouse gasses.  We're running out of cheap energy at a time when oil companies are already killing by proxy for the sake of drilling.  We're running out of fresh water, and of forests, and of fisheries, even as entire species are dying out. Globalization and "free trade" and "privatization" are all trending toward the destruction of democracy and civil society everywhere, just for the sake of promoting the interests of amoral, and often immoral, transnational corporations.  The media, who should be serving as watchdogs, are themselves corrupt transnational corporations.  And in consequence political corruption is striking to the very bone, resulting in legislation directly contrary to the best interests of the vast majority of human beings — though not contrary to the very short term interests of the very, very wealthy. 

After this dismal litany, can there possibly be any good news?

Yes.  There can be, and there is.  We've never had greater intellectual resources for problem solving, and we've never before faced problems that are truly global in nature and that therefore demand global solutions.  And the best news of all, perhaps, is this:  there have never been more people aware that something is fundamentally wrong with the way that we're conducting human affairs.

While there is no question whatever that stormy weather lies ahead for humanity, both in the meteorological sense and on the level of our societies, much can be done to reduce the severity of the impact.  But we are running out of time — time to prevent the more explosive, and wholly unnecessary, sort of human misery, because it does, after all, take time.  Like human beings themselves, human institutions have a built-in historical and economic and ideological inertia that can't quickly be redirected into rational channels even with the best of intentions, even with unlimited resources, and even under the best of circumstances.  So unless we are very, very careful indeed, catastrophe awaits humanity and the fragile habitat that is all that supports us.  For better or for worse, the next 50 years will be decisive for the human species.

But stormy weather notwithstanding, neither despair or depression are options.  There is really only one option:  dedication and all of the concern that we can muster, as individuals, families, communities, cities, states, and nations.  The time is already long past for petty feuding.  These are not "normal" times, whatever that means.  As we noted above, the problems we now face are global, and massive in scale.  We must pull together or perish together. 

It's really just that simple — and just that difficult.  The time to get started is now, right now, today.  And the place to start is with a diagnosis of the disease.  With that in hand, we can design a cure.  And lastly, and we must hope not too late, comes the implementation of that cure.

In the frame set that provides the home for this essay, we offer an analysis, a cure, and possible steps to its implementation.  Each of these is controversial, though not intentionally so.  We do not criticize to recriminate, which at this point would be an exercise in futility.  We criticize so as to achieve clarity of vision. 

The resources here are grouped into the following subdivisions:  The Disease, The Cure, and Implementation.  We hope that they contribute something to your own thinking, your own actions, and ultimately to the right solutions.

We can't afford to fail.

The Editors
Progressive Living