Gibson Paradigm Time

Two Tales of the Future
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9830991-2-3
Verlag: One Planet Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 336 Seiten

Are you concerned about the future and what lies ahead for ourselves and the next generations? Do you worry about the rapid environmental degradation that is occurring globally? With the world at a crossroads, the decisions being made by adults today will have a profound effect on our children's tomorrow.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gibson, Will

Leseproben

Resolution Days   THREE GENERATIONS had passed since the beginning of the new century and for each, the struggle for survival had become safer and saner. But disappointingly, it had not come without a high cost and, of course, it had not come without first a crisis. Twenty years into the new century, critical food shortages had placed unbelievable pressure on several governments to support and feed their people. Food rioting had started in areas where the shortages were causing pain and suffering. As the wealthier world watched, mass hunger and starvation had occurred in many areas and to many peoples throughout the world. It was severe, it was intense, it was devastating. And to some, it was something that they could no longer endure or tolerate. While several of the more developed nations were still able to keep the life-sustaining levels of foodstuffs on hand for their populations, this bred an even stronger contempt from the have nots toward the haves, from the poor toward the rich. And in that one corner of the world, in that one desperate moment, a core of individuals planned the unthinkable and dedicated themselves to carry it out. With their backs against the wall, with nothing left to lose, they wanted revenge and they wanted to even the score. A nuclear weapon in the hands of such a group could only have negative and very serious consequences. These perpetuators would become the source of the world’s first ‘loose nuke’ but they were determined to give it someone else’s ownership. This highly technical, highly political faction had succeeded in creating the appearance of a nuclear attack on another country by one of its enemies. And before the deception was uncovered, the two countries retaliated with nuclear strikes of their own, coming down on a major city in each nation. Three atomic weapons had been unleashed upon the planet. And the accompanying devastation and the horror and the pain had been felt the world over whether one was an actual victim or had only been a witness. Besides the many deaths, radiation sickness affected hundreds of thousands more and rendered large areas of land uninhabitable for hundreds of years. But because of the Great Mistake, changes had finally come to all governments and all nations. With the complete abhorrence by the world of this event, conferences had then been urgently arranged and agreements quickly reached to prevent any such occurrence from ever happening again. Also, in addition to the destruction of all remaining nuclear weapons, formal treaties were signed by every sovereign nation in the world promising never again to wage war or to resort to violence or military intervention to settle disputes. The world had almost killed itself and all knew the Mistake must never be repeated. This real peace dividend would reap real rewards as no longer would nations spend great percentages of their wealth on defense or on military buildups or on the bullying of weaker counterparts. Because war is never waged only on countries or governments, war is waged on people, that is why it has always been wrong and even immoral. And now governments did not have to waste their money on these destructive and unproductive areas within our society and we could finally turn our attention to solving the more basic problems of the human condition. Food production, health systems, education, and infrastructure could finally take their rightful place at the top of the spending list. Money is now directed toward people’s lives, not toward their deaths. And with just this one basic change, a truly new world of possibilities had broadly opened before us as it was no longer country against country, culture against culture, or class against class. The world had finally embraced its diversity, appreciated its differences, and celebrated its various viewpoints. We had looked into each others’ eyes, into the depth of each others’ souls, and found similarities not differences, love not hate, and respect not disdain for one another. The first step was to provide efficient sustainable agriculture to the entire world. Because of the disasters of the early part of the century, few areas of concern received as much attention as the pure and simple feeding of our populations. In the developing nations, many successes of subsistence farming and husbandry had been achieved. In the developed nations, the failure of large scale and corporate agriculture to provide a safe and quality food supply had finally brought about change. We had realized that these overly processed and easily contaminated and nutritionally deficient products had been the wrong recipe for a healthy human diet. With a return to family farming, better stewards of the land than any corporate board, came an awareness of the benefits and the cost savings of a more localized production and distribution of the food supply. And we had finally stopped pouring poisons on the lands and had protected the waters and oceans to allow us, once again, to utilize the vast resources of our seas. After several decades of empty rhetoric and false promises on education, the world had finally recognized that in this one vital area may lie the answers to many of our social problems. Ensuring that our young people were able to freely and easily obtain early quality education became a main purpose of every government in every country. And with this accomplishment, we could finally move forward from a position of understanding and intelligence, not from one of only false beliefs or defended ideologies or perpetual ignorance. By producing fully informed individuals, more progressive and far-sighted public policy had followed and, indeed, had been demanded by its enlightened citizens. Better educated people make better lifestyle choices, make better contributions to society, and create better solutions to the problems that exist in the world. Energy and environment had linked together into a coherent and sane plan for supply and survival. A successful transition from industrial age fuels to new age renewables had occurred rapidly with the realization that any other path forward would be a journey into decline. With the degradation of the environment occurring at a much more rapid rate than previously predicted, countries and governments finally realized the urgency for action that was needed in this arena. If we were to maintain a healthy home planet for future generations, sincere and earnest action by the citizens and the leaders of the day was required. Conservation in all areas of commerce and lifestyle became the new paragon. By reducing usage, we had been able to make the transition to renewables easier. And with this conversion, innumerable jobs had been created in the research and development of alternative energies and in the caring for and the renewing of the lands and the rivers and the lakes and the oceans. Another major area that had finally received attention was controlling the numbers of humans that lived upon the planet. Also because of our experiences with the food riots of the early century, all finally knew that something had to be done about the out of control, burgeoning human populations. Programs were developed throughout the world to educate people on the benefits of having a reasonable family size and on the responsibilities of that parenthood. Adding two billion to our numbers in the first seventy years and then again in the next thirty years during the previous century had been a foolish formula for disaster and with the weight of that human activity treading heavily upon the earth, the number of footsteps had to be reduced. Additionally, a new economic system had evolved in this new world. The constant growth that was rapaciously required by so-called modern economies had been replaced by the reason and predictability of a sustainable and more socially valuable system. The New Economy has become a needs based economy and not a wants based economy. The production of necessary goods and services on a global level provides sufficient economic activity for all without the requirement of that ‘growth industry’ or that next hot thing or another sanctioned scam. The boom, bust, and bubbles of market economies had blown up in our faces, time and time again. An economy based on growth is an economy digging its own demise in a world of finite resources. And we no longer look favorably upon using those resources to produce goods for only conspicuous consumption as we are no longer judged by the things we own but by the way we lead our lives. The Old Economy had simply been a numbers game where the numbers just didn’t add up anymore. The ‘bigger is better’ group had finally been pushed from the top and had been replaced by the more reasonable and rational thinking on smaller and more local levels. And with the inability of big business to solve our big problems, individuals had regained the reins of commerce to make it work for everyone. It was time for the bigger part to end and for the better part to begin. It was time for a new paradigm. Although larger operations such as those necessary to produce economies of scale still continued in many areas of production, those now leading these companies could no longer inordinately enrich and empower themselves at the expense of others. Valid social and environmental costs had finally been added into the formulas of the free market and with these adjustments, the true cost for all goods and services could now be determined. Unnecessary, frivolous, and harmful material goods had finally stopped being produced; essential, socially beneficial, and safer goods and services now prevailed. Because of an improvement in basic living conditions, that excess consumption was no longer needed to fill those empty holes in...