The False Promise of the Future

We as a society/culture are very future-oriented.   Why?  Because we feel the future holds the promise of having better lives, often through advances in science and technology. 

This perspective was boldly stated 50-60 years ago by companies such as DuPont, "Better living through chemistry," and General Electric, "Progress is our most important product."  The common thought was that everyone's lives would be made easier, not just housewives', by advances in science and technology.   As a result we would spend less time working – it was expected that the work-week would shrink to 35 hours – and more time relaxing and playing. 

As we know, however, although women do spend less time, certainly less arduous time, in keeping house and clothes clean and cooking than they did pre-WWII, it is safe to say that no one's life has gotten easier, that our work time has reduced and play time increased.   In fact just the opposite. 

We live now in a world where everyone is constantly connected through technology and is therefore expected to be available at all times, whether for work or otherwise.   We live in a world where the demands of work have become more oppressive.   And where mothers, while they spend less time on certain tasks, have been given a whole new set of tasks which take up a huge amount of time and energy, e.g. soccer moms.

Everything has become more complicated, not easier, and with it, the frustrations of completing tasks, of knowing how to move forward has increased.   This is not how it was supposed to be.   This is not what the prophets of progress, of the future, had promised us. 

But it gets worse.   It's not only that the promise hasn't panned out, the whole premise is an example of wrong thinking. 

What would make our lives truly better than they are now?  Let me list a few things for starters.   Feeling secure.   Feeling good about yourself.   Feeling you are loved.   Feeling you can trust others.   Feeling you will be ok regardless what life throws your way. 

It is safe to say that for most people, the feelings I just listed would not be descriptive.   Yet what is life if one does not have these feelings/knowledge.   You can have all the material wealth in the world, and still not be happy, still not feel secure.   We see evidence of that all around us, both among the rich and powerful and those at the other end of the affluence/power scale. 

The problem is how our culture – and it's not just America's, it's now the world's – defines happiness.   Happiness in this scenario, as portrayed in countless movies, ads, and media, consists of having the financial ability to acquire the things that make for the "good" life.   To get what you want, to be successful, on any level.   If you do, you will be happy; if you don't, you will be frustrated and upset. 

From practical experience we all know this is not true.   Even when people get what they want, they still want more, they aren't satisfied, they worry about losing what they have.   Our masked insecurity gives us no peace.

What is needed to allow the vast majority of people to lead a meaningfully better life, to experience peace, happiness, and security, not necessarily materially, is a major shift in how our culture defines happiness. 

Luckily we don't have to look very far.   The teachings of Buddhism and that of the mystical traditions of all three major Abrahamic faiths (not the organized religions) all teach that happiness means to be at peace with oneself, to have good self-esteem, to know that you will be ok regardless what life throws your way.   That happiness comes from within and is not dependent on anything outside you. 

But how do we get to there from here?  The answer is back to the future.   Advances of science and technology are all well and good.   But they are meaningless, if not destructive, if people are not grounded in the past – not in the sense of their past, but the past of mankind.   And first and foremost, that involves a connection to and faith in a cosmic force larger than ourselves, and derivatively faith in ourselves.   

Whether it's the cosmic force of the Buddhist universe (Buddha is not a God, a deity, so the faith is not in him) or the Divine essence that the mystical traditions of the Abrahamic faiths teach is in each of us, or whether it's a more new-age concept of God, or the Universe or your higher power – humans must know that they are not put on this earth to fulfill some banal material or sexual desire. 

They are instead put on earth to be good human beings.   Human beings are born with the divine essence inside them.   And what is that divine essence?  It is light, love, faith, trust, compassion, humility, gratefulness, joy, contentment, strength, courage, and wisdom.   A human being treats other people with kindness, which is why inhumanity is defined as cruelty.   A human being has lived his life well if he has offered joy to himself and others and made a positive difference in the lives of others. 

If we were grounded in this faith in ourselves and the universe, we would have no fear of the future, of death, or of anything else.  We would do, commit our lives to, whatever we felt inside us that we were meant to do, not what our culture or our parents want us to do.  And we would be happy doing what we felt we were meant to do, regardless whether we were "successful. "  True happiness is derived from the doing, not by the outcome. 

And if we lived in a world where everyone was grounded in this faith, we would not be faced with the competitive forces we experience today.   Society would be more communal in nature with people helping others.   Everyone would have their acknowledged place at the table (not as in 'know your place").   And if people could not provide for themselves, government would provide the resources so all people could live a life of dignity and respect. 

There would still be the rich and the poor, but the difference would be far less and the poor would want for none of the essentials of life or of the equal opportunity to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. 

Does this sound like a utopia?   I guess the answer would have to be, yes.  But the sad thing is that man has it in his ability to create such a world.   He has been given a highly developed brain but has not used that brain to make human life better, on a higher plane, than animal life.   Instead, man's brain, his mind, has in many ways made his life worse; there is no such thing as a neurotic animal, unless he has come under the control of man; whereas neurosis in man, psychic suffering, is universal.   Animals are wise in ways which men have ceased to be. 

I don't know what the answer to these observations is.   But the observation, the truth, needs to be spoken.   If there is any hope for man, it is with people becoming aware of this truth, understanding its impact, and vowing to change their approach to life accordingly.   The change will come one person at a time.   Perhaps over the course of a generation, this movement will create a sufficient mass to have an impact on the rest of society. 

For Being So Smart, Man Sure Has Made a Mess of Things

In his ceaseless quest for “progress,” man is creating an environment which is ever more inhospitable to man.  Many would call this statement an oxymoron.  The general wisdom is that progress makes our lives better, as embodied by the old DuPort slogan, “Better living through chemistry.”

Unfortunately the general wisdom, while in part undeniably true, has come at a terrible price for mankind.  The environment which sustains us and gives us life as well as our very humanity are being seriously compromised, possibly irreparably.  Let me count the ways - some much discussed, some less so.

Probably the most discussed way in which progress is creating a world inhospitable to man is the destruction of the environment.  The industrial revolution and the adoption of the automobile as the primary and preferred mode of transportation, combined with the rate of population growth and the emergence of newly-middle class populations particularly in China and India, have resulted in an exponential growth in the use of fossil fuels over the past century, especially in recent decades.  

From 1910 to the present, fossil fuel use has increased from a base of 1,000 to 11,000.  In the last 50 years alone, its use has increased almost 300%.  And while coal, the dirtiest of the fossil fuels, does have a much smaller share of the total energy market today, what is rarely pointed out is that the actual amount of coal used world-wide is more now than ever; a 200+% increase since 1965.  

This increase in fossil fuel use is causing a change in the climate/weather parameters that man has depended upon to support his way of life for millennia.  (See my post, “Climate Disorder = Global Upheaval.”)   We are probably already past the tipping point.  The efforts of the international community to reduce carbon emissions may, if successful, slow the process, but it will not stop the process.  The news from scientists is always the same, “We didn’t think it would happen this quickly.”  But it has and continues to.

Beyond the use of fossil fuels, our use of chemicals in every conceivable product is causing mostly unknown damage to man.  Yes, a small number of chemicals have been studied and shown to be dangerous, and they have been taken off the market.   And there has been improvement, along certain parameters, in air and water quality under the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. 

But vast numbers of chemicals have been released into the air, soil and water, and absorbed by our bodies, that have not been studied at all.  We simply have no idea what impact they will have.  We do know that illnesses, such as cancer, exist now in unheard of numbers and there is speculation that the air we breathe, the water we drink, etc. is the cause for this increase is disease prevalence.  But there is no proof.  

However, a rational person looking at the plethora of chemicals in our bodies, the air, the soil, and water would say that the most reasonable assumption is that these chemicals will have a negative impact on us.  How could they not, given the intricacy of the functioning of the environment and the human body.  And that they therefore should not be allowed unless proven to be safe.  Rather than the other way around, which is how we have operated.  The dictum of criminal law, “innocent until proven guilty,” has no place in this context.

Then there is the issue of technology.  Several decades ago, the development of new technology was touted as the harbinger of more leisure time, a shorter work week.  Instead,  just the opposite has happened.  With each new technological advancement, making it possible to do things more quickly or be available at all times, our lives have become more burdened.  Certainly people in white collar jobs work harder now than they ever did with less time for leisure and for family.  For many blue collar workers, technological progress has brought unemployment as their jobs have been eliminated by increasing automation. 

But there is a darker side to the impact of technology resulting from the use of smartphones and tablets in combination with the development of social media.  It’s obvious in just looking around that most people are connected to their electronic screens every moment when they are not otherwise occupied, and often even when they are.  Whether they’re in a restaurant with friends or family, standing in the subway, walking down a street, or even in the theater … there, those electronics don’t get turned off till the last possible second, and as soon as the lights come up, they are turned on again.

Numerous articles have been written stating that the use of social media has become an addiction and that the social skills of people, especially the young, who are obsessively absorbed with their electronics have been negatively impacted.  Their interpersonal skills have been weakened.  They shy away from real relationships and instead see their social media “friends” as relationships.  They are removed from whatever they are doing, they aren’t really there.   This so closely tracks the definition of autism that I recently wrote a post, “The Increase in Social Media and Autism - Coincidence or Causal?”  But few people seem to be paying attention to this threat.

Another topic that is rarely discussed is the impact of the automobile and tourism on our lives.  For centuries we have made our homes in cities, towns, and villages.  These were vibrant places … even the smallest village … with life and human interaction typically centered around the local grocery/general store or stores, sitting on porches and chatting with passersby, or otherwise being part of a community. 

Now tourism and the automobile have created a double whammy that has rendered almost every place, with the exception of the largest cities, either a perversion or shell of their former selves.  In the decades following WWII, many cities and towns suffered economically.  Those that could turned to tourism as a way to pour fresh blood into the local economy.  But due to the increased use of credit cards and the marketing prowess of the internet, tourism has in the last decade become an all-devouring monster for many communities.  

Yes, it brings in people and dollars, stores are no longer empty, but the cost to the lives of the people who live there has been great.  Whether it’s Charleston, Savannah, or Asheville, to name just a few, towns are now overrun with tourists.  And these are not mostly tourists who have a love of history, who want to savor the charms of the past.  It’s hard to know what drives them, but mostly they seem to be out for fun and a few minutes of enrichment.  With hordes of such tourists, who seem to have no respect for the place they are visiting, the beauty and pace of life that was, is no more.

Other cities and towns, who continued to prosper and grow after WWII, developed suburbs in response to population growth and the availability of the automobile.  With the new residential development came shopping malls filled not with local stores but chains. 

As a result of this growth, and people’s love of driving, even people who still live in cities or towns started driving out to the suburbs to do their shopping because they wanted name brands/chains.  And the stores in the new malls were larger, had a greater selection of merchandise, often at lower cost, than the smaller stores that existed in town.  So not only did many people with disposable incomes move out of the cities, but those that remained stopped shopping there.   

And so slowly, the small local stores that had been the hub of life in the cities/towns went out of business.  I experienced this first hand in my home town of Reading, PA.  When I was growing up in the 50s and on into the 60s, downtown Reading was a vibrant place.  That’s where people went to shop.  You knew and talked to the store owners, sales personnel, the butcher, etc.  But by the 80s, the suburbs and shopping malls had grown so much that downtown Reading collapsed.  It was no more.  Literally.  Now it has been turned into an office center.  

And this is not just an American experience.  A recent article in The New York Times noted that the same phenomenon has happened in France where many of the older cities/towns are filled with shuttered shops as people flock to the outskirts to shop in the new shopping malls.

So the progress offered by the freedom of the automobile together with that offered by the use of credit cards has resulted in a catastrophe for many cities and towns.  They are devoid of the life that they used to have.  The new suburbs are also devoid of this quality of life.  They aren’t towns in the old sense of the word; there is no commercial nucleus around which the towns exist and function.  It’s all sprawl.  Everything is totally car dependent … you can’t walk anywhere in post-WWII suburbs.  There is no community.

And so people’s lives have changed, and not for the better.  As an example of poetic justice, the technology of the internet is now threatening those very shopping malls as more and more people are shopping online; it’s convenient.  

In the largest cities, you do still have vibrant neighborhoods.  They have not been impacted by tourism or the automobile.  But here, community life has been drastically altered both by technology and the chase after the almighty dollar.  Everyone is so focused on their electronics and making money, on improving their status in life, that they have little time or energy for other people, even often their own family.  Yes, people still get together to have fun.  And parents and children cross paths at home.  But that seems to be all that it is.  There’s no energy for a deeper investment or interest in others.  

This is not nostalgia.  This is an assessment of how our interaction with each other, our sense of community (beyond rooting for the local sports franchise), has diminished.  And with that we have lost something very important as human beings.  We have created an atmosphere that is barely fit for human life.  For to be human is to interact with others, face to face on a personal level. 

So what does mankind have to show for all the “progress” we’ve made in the past few centuries, especially the last one?  We certainly have more wealth.  We have more creature comforts, a higher standard of living.  Household chores have been made easier.  Illnesses have been cured and people live longer.   These are not minor achievements. 

But in this Faustian bargain, we have set in motion an upheaval in our environmental habitat that will have major but unknown consequences for our lives and well-being.  We have polluted the air, soil, and water around us, as well as our bodies, with a multitude of chemicals, again with unknown but unquestionable consequence for our health.  We have each year created new technological advances, and yet our lives grow harder and the sap of human life is drained from us.  And the ubiquitous automobile together with credit-driven tourism has resulted in the demise of our cities, towns, and villages as places where humanity thrives.

In this post, I have discussed these issues from a very human-centric perspective.  Yet we ignore at our own peril the impact that our “progress” has had on the animals and plants with whom we share this planet and on whom we depend in so many ways for our survival.

I’ve written several posts on how we might find our way back to a more meaningful life.  (For example, see “Healing Our Nation, Healing Ourselves.”)  But given human dynamics, it seems highly unlikely that we will change direction barring some huge catastrophe which makes everyone stop and reassess our way of living.

What Has Man Wrought?

Throughout the ages, man in “civilized” societies has felt that he is superior to all other elements on this planet.  Man to put it mildly has been very full of himself when it comes to his place in the scheme of things.  Western man (which is to say followers of the Judeo-Christian tradition) even saw himself as being made in God’s image.

After all the millenia of hype, the question must be asked, has the advent of man on this planet been of benefit, either to the other elements of the planet or even to man?  What has man wrought?

Before the advent of civilized societies, the natural world functioned in a very symbiotic and pure fashion. There was nothing is this world that was despoiled.  Primitive man, up to and including the Native American Indians, had great respect for all the natural elements and lived in total harmony with them.

With the advent of civilized societies (at least Western ones; I cannot speak to the other early civilizations), and certainly since the industrial revolution, man has despoiled the environment, to a greater extent with each passing year.  “Progress” for mankind has meant degradation or extinction of the natural environment.

And what of man’s benefit to man?  At a minimum, that depends on which side of the power divide you’re standing.  

Some examples.  Starting with the growth of ancient civilizations, the powerful often dominated those they conquered by making them slaves.  Slavery as a business proposition had (and in some parts of the world still has) a long tradition that began before the start of carrying slaves to the new world.  Under the guise of “the white man’s burden” and “spreading God’s word,” European nations plundered and destroyed native civilizations around the world.  In our own country, the American government practiced what can only be called genocide against the Native American Indian.  Certainly, if man was benefiting man, it was only the strong benefiting themselves.

“O.K.,” you may say,  “all of this is true but look at the incredible progress that man has brought to mankind.”  Man has always touted the concept of progress, of an ever-improving life with each technological innovation.  Remember G.E.’s slogan, “Progress is Our Most Important Product” or DuPont’s, “Better Living Through Chemistry”?  The slogans are gone, but contemporary marketing makes the same case through manipulative images and ad copy.

There is no question that man is better off materialistically than he was in the past.  But is he happier?  Is he better off spiritually than he was hundreds of years ago?  I would argue that the answer is probably, “no.”  As he moved from the land to the city, man lost his connection to the land, his feeling of belonging and purpose.  He lost his roots and it has been getting worse with each generation.  Life may have been very hard, but there was a spirituality (not religiosity) to man’s life which provided a feeling of self-worth and an innocent happiness.  

Modern man, whether living in a major city or in the country, is totally a creature of modern culture.  He is manipulated as to what he thinks, what he wants, what he buys.  Whether it’s politics or business, it’s all about marketing, selling.  And because of our culture of competition and consumerism, we are manipulated to always want more and not be satisfied with what we have and who we are.  We have lots of stuff, but also lots of debt.  It is a system which fosters frustration, dissatisfaction, and depression.  

This is not to say that man (and of course in using this term I am including women and children) did not suffer from depression and frustration in earlier years.  But the breadth and depth of it in contemporary life is far greater.

Finally, there is the question of whether man has even benefited those closest to him ... his immediate family.  I cannot say what family life was like in ancient times.  But as man moved from primitive communal societies to “civilized” societies of a non-communal and later capitalist nature, man became an insecure animal, left to his own devises to fend for himself.  

As I argue in my book, Raising a Happy Child, insecure people raise insecure children and the cycle is never ending.  Thus we find ourselves today in a world filled with insecure people.  Regardless how powerful or rich someone may be, deep down that person is typically very insecure.  And whether in the family or at work, insecure people cannot develop strong, healthy relationships.  Certainly not ones based on unconditional love and trust.  Their insecurity has a powerful impact on how they view themselves and the world around them.  That is why our world is so dysfunctional, whether you look at family relationships, the political landscape, or the relationships between nations.

And so, the answer to what has man wrought is much degradation and misery.  We seem to be an evolutionary experiment gone awry.  Although we have advanced in many ways over the millenia, our brains (as opposed to our knowledge) have not advanced or evolved.  We are still functioning with a brain that nature developed for primitive man 150,000 years ago.  And that brain is not equipped to handle the changes that have occurred in human society over those years.  Our ability to think has unfortunately not made us better human beings.

Is there a way out?  A better way?  Yes.  In my book, Raising a Happy Child, as well as my various Buddhist books, I try to present a cohesive, positive answer for my fellow man.