Bob,
I am not very good at reiterating other people's thoughts and ideas; I believe we all internalize what we see/hear and the story changes with our personal slant. I think we tend to remember the ideas which either turn on our personal light bulbs (AHA!) or which strengthen our own opinions (I Told You So!). Please keep that in mind with what I write here. But I'll give it a try. And will use mostly quotes to try to maintain the author's original ideas.
The author begins by discussing what he terms "Presentism". Past cultures used narrative, a story with a past/beginning, middle, and an end. "We understand where we are, in part, because we have a story that explains how we got here." With the technological boom, futurists became the people upon whom many relied. "The stories they came up with were tailor-made for corporations looking for visions of tomorrow that included the perpetuation of corporate power...Meanwhile, all this focus on the future did not do much for our ability to contend with the present...we ended up robbing the present of its ability to contribute value and meaning." He states that "So far in our journey, we have seen the human story collapse from a narrative into an endless occupation or infinite game...how digital technology continually challenges our coherence and connection to the natural rhythms that used to define our biology and psychology alike."
Interestingly, he discusses past and present apocalypse scenarios/predictions and why people react to them. "...the common conflation of so many apocalypse scenarios -- bird flu, asteroid, terrorist attack -- camouflages ones that may actually be in progress, such as climate change or the slow poisoning of the oceans." He quotes Mathew Barrett and Mel Gilles (The Last Myth): "...the real challenges we must face are not future events that we imagine or dismiss through apocalyptic scenarios of collapse -- they are existing trends." Peak oil, global warming (I prefer climate change) resource wars, have already begun. Most individuals see these problems as just too complex for us to fix. He states, "The collapse of civilization due to nuclear accident, peak oil, or SARS epidemic finally ends the ever-present barrage of media, tax forms, toxic spills, and mortgage payments, opening the way to a simpler life of farming, maintaining shelter, and maybe defending one's family."
The most outstanding paragraph for me:
"The hardest part of living in present shock is that there's no end and, for that matter, no beginning. It's a chronic plateau of interminable stresses that seem to have always been there. There's no original source to blame and no end in sight. This is why the return to simplicity offered by the most extreme scenarios is proving so alluring to so many of us."
I do wish to add that his sources are often not scientific journals or bona fide research projects. Many are from media programs, newspapers, magazines, even his own previously published books (quoting himself??). However, like I said...it's interesting reading. It puts some of my own questions and thoughts into words and gives them a Label
There is much more but I have quoted the bits with which I think this community might identify.
Best Wishes.
