The first thing I remember seeing on TV was Dr. Paul Ehrlich, author of the 1968 bestseller: “The Population Bomb”. With cool authority he explained how the earth was physically incapable of feeding more than 3.54B people, and since the population at the time stood at 3.52B that there was no way to avoid the starvation riots in the US in the early 70s.
I was three.
To say this put me off my stroke a bit would be an understatement. The thesis was underscored throughout my youth by elders far and wide. The world was – certainly, irrevocably – going to end before I grew up. The best I could hope for would be to be one of the survivors living in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Hollywood repeated the theme endlessly, the paucity of human care and surplus of greed and selfishness.
By my mid twenties we had survived all of the foretold Ends. The Cold War was over, we were producing far more food per person with far more people to feed. The dead Lake Erie was once again alive, the Hudson River didn’t catch fire as often and we had solved myriad other problems that I had been told were beyond our capability.
Half a century in, I have read fairly deeply on many more issues than I knew to ask about in my youth. I have discussed and debated these in person and online with other amateurs, academics, politicians, analysts, executives and most anyone else who would stand still long enough all over the world. As much as a dabbling amateur can, I have gained a reasonable understanding of a representative set of the spectrum of human concerns.
Despite the societal cynicism I was raised in – despite its institutionalization in western culture today – there remains not a single challenge we face that I cannot see a path forward through. Looking at the world’s history in my own life – and over the handful of centuries and millennium since we began building societies – what is much more obvious than the failures most often noted is a continuous progression in positive direction.
It is very hip to be cynical. Repeating the popular catch phrases is an acceptable way to show individualism without investing the time in developing an informed opinion or bearing the risk of nonconformity.
But those who choose that path at best support the self-fulfillment of their own fears. Encourage the disillusionment of our youth. Contribute to the ash-covered ennui of self defeat.
From ISIS to the plight of inner city youth, much of the responsibility lies at the feet of those who embrace and promote the borrowed, tired cliches of despair.
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