<DrumBeat: October 26, 2007The Oil DrumFriday Evening Reading>

237 comments on USA 2034: A Look Back at the 25th Anniversary Year

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AlanfromBigEasy on October 26, 2007 - 10:41am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Pain is a strong motivator for change. And I expect a lot of pain in the "Bad Tens". *IF* we can replicate some of the prior changes in American history, it will be a positive change.

IMVHO, Step One in a positive change is a vision of just what that change should be. General Motors had it's vision of the future city at the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair. I have mine.

Best Hopes,

Alan

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oilmanbob on October 26, 2007 - 2:33pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

"What is now prooved was once only imagined."

from William Blakes "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", Proverbs of Hell section

Bob Ebersole

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WNC Observer on October 26, 2007 - 2:49pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I would have selected "The Terrible Tens" as the name for the next decade. Alliteration is always more catchy.

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AlanfromBigEasy on October 26, 2007 - 3:02pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Done !

I will use this in all future revisions, etc.

Best Hopes for a short decade,

Alan

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Greg in MO on October 26, 2007 - 9:02pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Alan,

Speaking of the 'teen decade, the vision you have created bears much similiarity to the work and predictions of Professor Jack Lessinger. In his books he predicts a dramatic shift in our priorities (in our new shared American Dream actually) coming to a head in the 2020's following a very rough period during the decades of the 2000's and the 2010's.

His very persuasive premise is that our shared vision of "the American Dream" has changed - quite drastically - every few generations throughout American history. In his book he tracks the past changes and the upcoming one.

The old American dream we have grown up hearing about is nicknamed "The Little King" in recognition of its focus on getting the little suburban 1/4 acre kingdom. The Little King dream is also very consumeristic, individualistic, and focuses primarily on the short-term. BUT it was a useful dream in it's day - you'll have to read the books to see what long past problem the Little King dream fixed.

But now the excesses of the Little King have broken a different facet of our society and a new American dream is rapidly growing in strength and awareness to disperse the Little King and repair the damage. Lessinger has nicknamed this new American dream "The Responsible Villager". This new dream is strongly anti-suburb, anti-consumerism, focused on the long-term and on strengthening the community. (Sound familiar?) Pretty much an opposite of today's Little King.

His original book on this was called "Schizomania" where schizo = split and mania = American Dream (we are currently in a period of two battling manias - the entrenched faltering Little Kings vs the inexperienced but strengthening Responsible Villagers.

He now has a new book updating his theory of American social change called "CHANGE: Fall of the Consumer Economy, Rise of the Responsible Capitalist"

You can read some brief intros to his work at:
http://www.jacklessinger.com/change.html
http://jacklessinger.blogspot.com/
http://www.predicting2020.com/
- but the books do it much better justice...

Your above future scenario meshes very well with Lessinger's predictions of our transformation into Responsible Villagers. Do an inter-library loan request and give "Schizomania" a read, it's very persuasive.

Greg in MO

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