The Next Ten Years - Opposing Viewpoints

[JDFP]

I applaud your optimism, but being the "realist" I am.... How do we know the "system" is going to correct itself at all? How do we know things aren't going to nosedive and never recover? I'll believe it when I see it. Easy answer on this one: History. We've had all out wars as early as 60 years ago where the world was at war. WWII was probably the closest we've come as humanity to destroying ourselves as humanity with the means to actually do it (with exception to who you ask about the NATO exercise known as Able Archer in 1983 where the Soviet Union came very close to beginning WWIII). We've had terrible conflicts and tragedies in the past -- but we have never in the history of existence destroyed ourselves and society has always persevered even in the most harsh of situations. Rome fell -- but how this affected the average daily existence of a 'Romana' citizen is debatable. I don't think we'll ever take a nose dive and never recover. If we do, I would say it would include nuclear war and we'd all be fucked anyway so it really wouldn't be a prescient matter at all since we'd all be dead. But, I don't see this happening on a large scale (the Cuban Missile Crisis of '62 and Able Archer in '83 I think were the two closest chances of this happening and forunately cooler heads prevailed). Yes, I try to be an optimist -- but I'm also fairly realist as well. Ultimately, I think humanity will continue to prevail no matter how difficult things will become on a short-term basis. I know the system will correct itself and we'll continue to move forward after any tragedy because this has always happened in the past -- no matter the tragedy or destruction. The only other alternative to this is that we screw ourselves up so badly (nuclear war, which I don't think is nearly as likely as it was 30 years ago, or perhaps some astronomical natural disaster we've never seen the likes of before) that we can't move on from it. As far as being a Negative Nancy -- I do think the next great Crisis period will involve the U.S. directly. I can see the dark clouds looming on the horizon. Long term I say we'll be fine though. Short term, I have some great concerns but know there's not a hell of alot I can do about it. It's a bit like being an average citizen in Germany in 1933. You roll with the punches and hope for the best. j.p.

[LouCipherr]

Easy answer on this one: History. I know the saying is always "history repeats itself" - but that's just a saying. Even though I can't think of one off the top of my head (hey, it's 9am and I haven't had my coffee yet! ) there has to be plenty of instances where history did not repeat itself. Even if things and events of current times seem the same, they aren't because there's way too many factors in each event that can greatly influence the outcome. That being said, we cannot simply justify an event with another event in the past. Then there's the flip side of the coin: Perhaps it is not history that repeats itself - but rather historians repeating one another. Then there's my negative Nancy third side of the coin (what?!): WE'RE FUCKED! I dunno JD - I think you're probably right - long term, we'll have to work shit out or we're all screwed, but I think short-term, we're in for some major shit-storms of serious proportions that I don't think any of us are quite ready for. I guess we'll see. I'll do what I always do: pray for the best, expect the worst.