social change

Looking Back Before Looking Forward

Looking Back Before Looking Forward

Contemplating potential societal changes the current technological revolution might create, it’s helpful to illuminate how dramatically the industrial revolution disrupted western society and culture. Consider the following:

Prior to the mid-1700s the family constituted the basic economic structure of society for Northern Europeans and American Colonialists. Families consisted mostly of a married couple, their children and oftentimes a hired teenage servant working for room, board and wages. Nearly all persons lived in rural areas and farming was of paramount importance as malnutrition and starvation were constant threats. A combination of disease and insufficient food resulted in an estimated 30 percent mortality rate for infants thru age fifteen. Independent living was nearly impossible to achieve for ordinary people due to the laborious nature of farming and other economic occupations, forcing nearly everyone to live within the confines of a household. Food costs represented 70-80 percent of household income for most families, leaving little if any discretionary income.

Where Is Technology Taking Us?

Where Is Technology Taking Us?

If one were to try and identify the most pivotal phenomenon of our times, it would be hard to challenge the spectrum of technological change. Nearly every field of endeavor has been altered by technology and more rapidly than at any time in history. In comparison to the industrial revolution, which took about 150 years to dramatically upend agricultural society, the information age has taken a mere generation to reshape how we work and live. Moreover, changes now occur so quickly that even rather recent innovations such as compact disks and fax machines are now obsolete. Almost daily, advances in such areas as artificial intelligence, gene editing and 3D printing revise major aspects of our existence. If the past is prologue, we are likely to see an acceleration of technological change in coming decades. These transformations during this information age, like the industrial revolution, have generally gone unquestioned as progress for mankind. Yet, while these changes have made our lives and work easier, more efficient and perhaps materially better, is there also something lacking in this progress, perhaps intangible tradeoffs that are presently opaque but might be eventually revealed only upon reflection of what are lives epitomize?

Secularism, Science, and Attaining a Just Society

Secularism, Science, and Attaining a Just Society

During my youth I heard many adult conversations lamenting the culture of my generation, as expressed in our music, art, language, work ethic, dress, and just plain civility. I always told myself that I would never be that person, criticizing contemporary youth and by extension modern times against some idolized version of my generation’s own past. After all, condemnation of existing society is ubiquitous throughout history, and perhaps more importantly, could reflect poorly upon older generations, which if not creating, at least acquiesce to current cultural mores. Moreover, it always seemed older adults shouldered some responsibility for raising these ostensibly narcissistic and discourteous youth.

Backlash Against a Borderless Europe

Backlash Against a Borderless Europe

Since the 1950s, European leaders have pursued the objective of political and economic integration through the Treaties of Rome, culminating with the Schengen Agreement, which allowed people and commerce to move freely within 26 European Countries without internal border controls. That historical objective is being severally tested as migration of large numbers of refugees from war torn areas of the Middle East and North Africa to Europe continues unabated. Concurrently, European jihadist sympathizers journey unimpeded through European nations to join the Middle East fighting. Now, a backlash is occurring among many citizens of Europe’s nation-states as they confront the trade-off that allows for the free movement of people whose culture, value and customs oftentimes conflict with the majority of those residing within these European nations.