The World is Changing and We Don’t Like It
What Could Possibly Go Wrong Now?
When I look out my window the world seems fine. Yet, I’m living in strange times. Not that life hasn’t always been strange, but I’m living in stranger times.
People are anxious.
You can feel it in the air. We know a lot more than our ancestors, but knowledge is a double-edged sword. Once you know something, you can’t go back. Now you’re responsible for what you know. Your life will never be the same again.
We’re living in strange times.
We’re at the end of something quite unusual but on the verge of something that feels too big to handle. Everyone feels it. Even if they vehemently deny it, I can see it in their faces. When I look in their eyes, I catch a glimpse of their angst. They know. They may be in denial, but deep down inside they know.
Life as we know it is changing.
It’s normal to cling to what was and resist what’s coming.
Good or bad has nothing to do with our reactions. We’ll fight to keep things the same even if we’re miserable. Change is rarely welcome.
What we’re facing is scary, however.
Maybe scarier than usual. Because we know a lot more than our ancestors did. Maybe we don’t know everything, but we know just enough to make us anxious.
For a couple centuries, humans have experienced unprecedented progress.
Whether technological, medical, social, or the increase in the amount of information at our fingertips, human progress has been phenomenal. We increased the lifespan, wiped out diseases, raised the standard of living, made daily life more convenient, produced more free time, and inspired innovation. Creative ideas became the norm, abundant ideas that came from unlikely sources. A middle class was born. Safety became a standard expectation. More people could read than ever before. Even churches were forced to change their demands on society.
It’s been a brief but amazing ride.
Our ancestors wouldn’t recognize today’s world. Ordinary people live better than kings. We have washing machines, dryers, air conditioning, cars, airplanes, phones, computers, the internet, machines of all kinds, and robots.
We’ve grown accustomed to our modern lives.
Until someone threatens to take something away from us, we take it all for granted. We can’t remember what life was like in the not-so-distant past. All we know is that life is changing.
We no longer know what to expect.
Antibiotics are less effective. New and old viruses are popping up everywhere. Diseases we once thought we’d wiped out are returning. Animals are disappearing. Catastrophic weather is becoming more frequent. Water is more precious. In December 2020, water appeared on the stock exchange for the first time. Extreme heat is everywhere, even in unexpected regions of the world. Natural resources are dwindling. Trash is piling up around our necks. Not everything is climate related. Most of it is related to our modern lifestyles, however. The life we’ve grown to love and expect.
We’re worried but paralyzed.
For those of us who have accepted the fact that we are living in strange times, we still haven’t changed the way we live our lives. We fly, drive, buy, waste, and squander as much as ever even while bemoaning the increased warnings that we should be doing the complete opposite.
The recent Inflation Bill is considered the biggest climate bill ever.
It’s not quite as good as we had hoped for but to implement it will be a HUGE challenge. To move from talk to action is always the true test, isn’t it?
Unfortunately, people are less trusting and less cooperative than perhaps in the past.
In America, for example, we no longer recognize experts in any field. Whether it’s doctors, scientists, teachers, professors, engineers, inventors, you name it, the age of the expert has ended. With no one to look to any longer, our angst has soared.
Now, everything is anybody’s guess.
As we struggle with the very idea of impending disaster, the loss of our conveniences, short supplies of food and water, shrinking lifespans, the emergence of new diseases and the rebound of old, many people are becoming belligerent and angry. They don’t like the new reality, so they simply deny it exists.
They scapegoat the messenger and avoid the solutions.
That will only work so long. This period of rampant evolution is global. It’s affecting everyone. It’s revealing our interdependence. You can’t set off a nuclear bomb on one side of the world without it affecting people on the other side of the world.
Do I have hope?
Not the kind of hope denialist love. I’m not looking for miracles. I don’t expect a supernatural being to intervene. I haven’t chosen a demagogue to fight my battles. What if anything will save us?
Maybe organic change will force action upon us.
In other words, if your village burns to the ground, you’ll be forced to rebuild it. Maybe you’ll rebuild the village to meet the standards that scientists and innovators were pushing decades ago.
A dollar late and day short, but better late than never.
Until then, I’m a pragmatist who looks at reality and understands that I’ve never gotten 100% of what I want and most certainly I won’t get it now. I’ll be monitoring one disaster at a time.
Eventually, I may notice that more people have joined my bandwagon.
They probably won’t remember that they were in denial for decades. They’ll think that they were always on board. After suffering one too many disasters, however, they were forced to change whether they wanted to or not.
That’s no miracle.
That’s life. Our brains aren’t wired to deal with the problems of the future. We fight the monster when he’s on our doorstep. That’s the story of humanity.
Yet, with or without our help, things will keep changing.
We can have progress, or we can regress. Disasters can multiply in strength and numbers, or we can rise to meet the challenge. Water can keep disappearing even as we dump chemicals into our dwindling resources, or we can begin to conserve and protect. Disease can spread and lifespans can become shorter, or we can take the precautions needed.
It’s strange times, my friend.
In my lifetime, I’ve seen us land on the moon and attempt to destroy this planet at the same time. I’ve seen people fight new information until they finally were forced to change. Cigarettes really do cause cancer. Seatbelts save lives. Speed limits make a difference. Saving trees matters. Regulations keep our rivers from catching on fire. Education lifts a society out of poverty. The path to change is always the same.
We resist until the information has become normalized, and then we can’t remember we were part of the resistance.
We’re in a massive resistant phase right now. The change being forced upon us isn’t due to governments, however. The demand for change is organic. Simple truths like dwindling resources, burgeoning populations, waste, and lack of cooperation will keep reminding us that our days are numbered. We’re afraid, angry, and mistrustful of one another, but we can’t stop asking ourselves …
What will happen next?
Teresa Roberts is a retired educator, author, world traveler, and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
