The Future We Didn't Get

[ecosophia]

There are times when I wonder why so many people seem so freaky these days, and then I remember this. 

This is the future we were supposed to get.  Two generations of Americans grew up being told that this was what they could expect, in newspaper ads like this one and in countless other venues. Next time you go for a walk or even look out the window, compare what you see to the image above, and measure the gap between them. The cognitive dissonance between the future we were told we were going to get and the one that's actually arrived is, I think, the single largest cause of the collective nervous breakdown unfolding around us right now. 

Comments

Utopias die hard

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, those were the days, JMG. Reminds me of the “Merry Melodies” and “Loonie Toons” cartoons such as the slick Daffy Duck demonstrating the ‘push button home of the future’ to the hapless Elmer Fudd and the classic ‘singing frog’ with the final scene in the 21st century.

I couldn’t agree with you more, JMG. Whether people are consciously aware of it or not, Western society is suffering from an acute case of ‘this isn’t the future we ordered’! The dream merchants of the mid-20th century really poisoned the pool of the collective mind. But at that time, it seemed patently obvious to everyone that humanity was on a phenomenal trajectory of technological progress. By some miracle, an illustrated chronology of the future that I penned in Grade 5 (that would have been in 1973) had manned missions to Mars in 1984 – and OF COURSE the automobile was going to be replaced by a vehicle remarkably similar to the one in your posted advertisement by then!

With the horrifying chasm between dreams and reality in the early 21st century, people have modified the fantasy to focus on cell phones, the Internet and IT. Meanwhile trade wars imperil our supply of rechargeable batteries and rare earth metals for said phones and the ‘smart’ components in all the incomplete shiny new cars that are quickly occupying every square inch of vacant land. And don’t forget the experimental ‘star ships’ that regularly blow up spectacularly on the launchpad while plans for trips to the Moon and Mars are being made. Meanwhile in December 2022 a full five decades will have passed since humanity last left low Earth orbit. Oh my, what a pretty pickle we’ve got ourselves into!

Re: Utopias die hard

[ecosophia]

It seems to me that one of the most useful things anyone can do right now is to force the contrast between the future we were promised and the one we got into public discourse...

Re: Utopias die hard

[lp9]

I am having pretty good luck using a very slow drip campaign with family and friends. Over the past three years or so, I have been making small comments here or there to draw attention to discrepancies. Nothing confrontational, nothing judgmental, just "here's why we're doing this at our house." And I'm seeing more people starting to latch onto ideas like "progress can't go on forever" or "we need to go back to the old way of doing things" or "you know, I don't think I need a tv." Some people, of course, are more open to these ideas depending on their class position or relationship to the person proposing them. Just last week my mother-in-law said she's excited to visit this summer and talk about this stuff--and she spoke in earnest. I feel a simultaneous opening up of possibilities among some people and a closing down among others, and those latter people are becoming especially brittle.

Re: Utopias die hard

[lp9]

Oh, one other tip for others trying to do this as well. I find it's actually very successful to poke fun of yourself when saying something serious. Like, "you know me, the crazy prepper" or "you know, when the government collapses" (both said in a tone that indicates you know you sound like a crazy person). It lets you get a novel or unpopular idea across without scaring people away and, over time, they realize that you're actually a reasonable person with sound ideas that match reality.