PastPresentFuture

When you spend some time with your children and grand children it’s natural to reflect on the past and look to the future.

As a baby boomer I have lived with some rationing in post war Britain, and especially remember not being allowed all the sweets (candy) I craved for. I well remember the American Air Force Sergeant who lived downstairs and my uncle, who lived in Los Angeles, arranging for me to receive different flavor chewing gum.

Dad came home with two Vauxhall Wyvern cars, a red one and a blue one, whilst I balanced on a table watching through the window. This was the time when no one could get one car in England. My father was, in the Cockney slang, ducking and diving, trying to make some extra money where he could. Times were a lot tougher in fifties England.

Then came the exciting 60’s which really did swing for my family and me. I had a terrific time, as the world re-discovered color and excitement and music. Everything was moving forward and seemed to have a reason. Cars were better, planes were faster, and homes were becoming more luxurious, seemingly by the day. We still had televisions without color, it was just starting in England, and there were only two channels, then three and finally four.

Most homes were beginning to get freezers and washing machines but dryers and dishwashers were yet to arrive everywhere.

The 70’s to the 90’s were even better for me and mine, now we had all the material possessions that you have come to expect in every modern home. Our family was growing, the children were getting exceptional educations, at a comparatively low cost, food, travel and entertainment and housing were excellent and we had them all.

This century started with great promise but soon was marred by Islamic fundamentalism, the additional scourge of regimes like those in Iraq and Iran and the uncertainties brought about by the collapse of Soviet style communism. These all brought about reactions which still resonate and continue to cause seismic shifts and some instability in the oil industry which underpin our already unstable global economy.

What of the future? It’s very easy to project forward from where we are in the mistaken belief that progress is straightforward and linear. It is not. There are always surprises, and as the name implies, we won’t be expecting them and therefore we can’t anticipate or predict them accurately.

The immediate past points towards a confused future buffeted between an ever increasing consumerism fuelled by the habit of brand purchasing on a greater scale set against the potential cataclysm brought about by global warming in which we might have to cut back on our carbon emissions between 50% and 80%.

If the latter were to come to pass our lifestyles will have to change drastically and fast, and not for the better. It will necessitate rationing of fuel, transportation, heating, cooling, manufacturing, clothing, food and possibly, even housing. In such a society there might also have to be martial law, mass identification programs, including biometric data and restrictions on travel.

There will be increased use of virtual meetings, working and studying from home to eliminate use of fuels and resources. The lack of going out from our houses will decimate businesses that rely on our presence, such as restaurants, cinemas and retail shopping. Only the rich and powerful will travel freely. These decreases of social interactions, especially with people who live far away, and therefore become inaccessible and unknown, will have results none of us can know.

There is every chance that, for the first time since the collapse of the Roman Empire, and the world’s slide into the dark ages civilization will actually go backwards. There is real concern that we will see medical pandemics, flooding of our major low lying cities caused by global warming and a lack of a choice of food in the first world and starvation in the third world.

Of course this apocalyptic series of visions could be total nonsense and we have to hope and work for this outcome. I remember working as a production assistant on a 60’s television magazine program in the UK. On it there was a projection scientifically calculated by the high gurus of academia that London’s population would double by the end of the last century and that we’d have to walk sideways to have enough space. It didn’t happen and we’re still not walking like crabs. Maybe we’ll continue to struggle but find answers, somehow, just in time, as we’ve usually done throughout history. When we didn’t, as with the dark ages, it can be a very long time before we can recover.