There are no easy solutions or survival “lessons”. We just have to learn to see the signs of the times, the coming changes and the pitfalls that lie ahead.
What are the most pressing problems emerging about the future? And are we equipped to deal with them? Such agonizing questions and others like them overwhelm us in recent years as we realize that the world is changing around us at speeds unprecedented for human experience. Every great step in technology is now becoming apparent that it can be used as a weapon of war, while we live in an age where conflicts are multiplying. The world is often driven to extremes and out of nowhere nations, states and peoples end up in deep and relentless confrontations.
In such a global environment, human existence seems disoriented, walking in dead ends, and flooded with oppressive existential questions.
An example of writing – an example of how we should recognize and approach the problems we face or will face in the future is given by the book of the author Yuval Noah Harari, “21 Lessons for the 21st Century”.
Almost daily we are bombarded with information, from multiple sources, that is uncontrolled, often contradictory, unconfirmed and often indifferent. Harari presents the 21 lessons for the new century by classifying them into specific categories. The areas covered are Disorientation, Work, Freedom, Equality, Community, Culture, Nationalism, Religion, Immigration, Terrorism, War, Respect, God, Worldview, Ignorance, Justice, Meta-Truth, Science Fiction, Education, Interpretation and Meditation. Each sector analyzes modern developments and the directions our societies are following. Then, persistently and carefully, he examines all the data, points out dead ends and contradictions, and charts paths for the future. It looks for solutions based on regeneration and the possibilities of people to build and survive.
He describes how both communism and fascism failed, and how liberalism – by which he essentially means democracy – faces its own particular problems.
In a world that will be dominated by algorithms, artificial intelligence, fake news, serious income inequalities and a job market completely different from what we or previous generations have known, new, mainly intellectual, survival tools are needed.
Our positions on how we should approach problems and recognize their possible solutions should always be based on common sense and not on dogma, emotional impulses or some hidden scenarios of expediency.
There are no easy solutions or survival “lessons”. We just have to learn to see the signs of the times, the coming changes and the pitfalls that lie ahead. As e.g. the truth in relation to the tons of information that overwhelm us. We must learn to think, both about the past and about the future. We are essentially the solutions to our problems.
