9 TASKS FOR 2001 (REDUX)

 

At the turn of the millennium, I made a list of the things I thought were most important to address in the coming decades, and called it "9 Tasks for 2001". They were:

1)    What is the alternative to money as the standard of value?

2)    How to reverse the breakdown of the family in the US?

3)    How to change the anomie of children and teens in our society?  How to revive education?

4)    How to contain spiritual values in American culture maintaining the separation of church and state?

5)    How to educate people to live healthful lives and change healthcare to respond to this?

6)    How to utilize new modes of communication to best serve society and the people in it?

7)    How to manage the impact of multinational corporations on society and limit their impact on American and world politics?

8)    What is the US role in world balance of power?  How to contain North/South relationships and the population bomb?

9)    How to sustain the ecology of the environment and still have economic stability?

Two decades and more have elapsed since this list was created and there are few signs of progress!

 1)    What is the alternative to money as the standard of value?  The development of blockchain and bitcoin technology is heralded as the "new money".  But this is simply about the "place keeping" role of money in the economic system.  Is there a greater value to life which includes economic survival but goes beyond this?  There is little indication that the US or world in general is ready to adjust to a new standard.

2)    How to reverse the breakdown of the family in the US?  The covid pandemic has increased awareness of the family by creating isolation and restrictions for family contact.  It remains to be seen if this will lead to more emphasis on family when the pandemic recedes.  Marriage rates are down, but so are divorce rates.

3)    How to change the anomie of children and teens in our society?  How to revive education?  Covid has been especially cruel on children and teens,  blocking their connection to each other and to active schooling.  The role of children and teens as consumers has expanded to the detriment of their development socially.  This must be addressed actively with the recession of the pandemic.  Will it be?  Education is the future of the society,  yet limited economic resources are dedicated to a broad initiative for public education,  and the emphasis has become increasingly focused on educating wealthy children.

4)    How to contain spiritual values in American culture maintaining the separation of church and state? The collapse of spiritual values in the US was symbolized by the political support of a morally corrupt leader by the majority of religiously affiliated Christian denominations (and some Jewish ones).  The decision to prioritize political influence over spiritual values is the essence of decline in spirituality.  This is augmented by the desire to create large wealthy congregations to the economic benefit of their leaders.  Without spiritual values,  the economic and political ones dominate, leaving the society exposed.  There is little indication that this has changed.

5)    How to educate people to live healthful lives and change healthcare to respond to this?  The most unfortunate aspect of healthcare in the US is its increasing emphasis on economic principles as the guiding force.  This occurs at every level:  individual health is defined in terms of preventing diseases by special expensive tests and treatments,  and by exercise regimens which require gym memberships or expensive home equipment.  In every instance,  the person's health is partly assigned to some outside agent,  at some significant expense.  When illnesses emerge,  they are treated with the most expensive tests, techniques, and medicines rather than the simplest,  because this is what is needed to sustain the economics of the healthcare component of the economy.  And those who do not have "good insurance", or any, are left to fend for themselves and deal with illness with little support,  and be bankrupted when they are forced to use the system under dire circumstances.  The last two decades have seen a drastic expansion of the influence of economic factors in the delivery of healthcare,  while reducing the quality of overall health, and increasing costs dramatically.  This is incorrectly blamed on the expansion of Obamacare, which merely extends the inappropriate costs and services to a wider group,  but does not contain them.  

6)    How to utilize new modes of communication to best serve society and the people in it?  In 2001, the potential benefits of broad social communication on the internet were beginning to be appreciated, but in the ensuing two decades all the negative potential for exploitation by the negative side of human character has been revealed.  The internet permits the public to be exposed to a broad range of positive and negative influences,  socially supportive and criminal, and everything in between.  The need for individuals to learn how to access the positive aspects and avoid the negative is part of the human adaptation of this new technology.  The tendency of politicians and some others to blame the problem on the role of a few dominant corporate entities completely misses the point of the individual role in managing participation in this system.  It is an indication of the lack of understanding of an older generation of politicians unprepared to address the challenges and role of government.  

7)    How to manage the impact of multinational corporations on society and limit their impact on American and world politics?  At the end of the previous millennium, multinational corporations were playing a dominant role in control of many industries, and the political authority of individual nations was weakening.  This was especially true in democratic countries, where the political will was influenced and controlled by financial interests.  This trend has diverged significantly.  China has emerged as a nation-state which asserts the power to control the participation of corporations by restricting their role while baiting them with the large economic potential of its population.  Small nations have little ability to influence the economic power of corporations on their leaders, and even large democracies have substantial undermining of independent political authority by corporate entities.  Corporations are not people,  and sometimes benefit the general public and sometimes exploit components of the population.  The political authority has responsibility to regulate this positive/negative impact,  and is losing its power to do so.

8)    What is the US role in world balance of power?  How to contain North/South relationships and the population bomb?  At the end of WW2, the United States was the dominant power in the world, and as recently as 1991,  the US was declared the leader in "Pax Americana".   In any group situation,  a single leader is always countered by alliances of other participants,  a reality that seems to have been lost on American foreign policy experts.  The failure to explore and develop complex multi-lateral alliances left the opportunities open to others.  Instead,  an ineffective policy built on "encouraging democracies" was totally unproductive.  The result was a declining role for the US in the world,  which the previous 4 years recognized and promised to reverse.  Instead, a more extreme for American autonomy with former allies was linked with alliances based on arms sales and other limited objectives.  The US is now encircled by links between other nations with limited ability to engage them.

9)    How to sustain the ecology of the environment and still have economic stability? Of all the challenges facing the country and the world,  the deterioration of the environment and its support of humanity is the most dire.  This was understood at the turn of the millennium and initially efforts were made among world nations to negotiate changes in economic practices that contribute to this deterioration.  Three basic issues must be addressed by all: 1) control of expanding population demands,  2) transition from fossil fuels to other solar based energy, and 3) reduction in the production and distribution of toxic substances.  All three of these goals negatively impact the expansion of the economies of countries,  and accommodation must be made to transition these changes or social disasters will result.  The inability to create a mutual world wide dialog about this task is distressing.  The emphasis of environmentalists on preserving at all cost, and of producers counter attacking is ineffective in negotiating outcomes.

That so little has been accomplished in 1/5th of the century is truly disturbing.