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A lot of the things I used to think would happen just didn't. I really believed in that pajama wearing star trek universe sold to me in science fiction. Basically those beliefs where that rationality would win out. We were getting smarter. The path of the world was to become more connected, less confrontational, and better off. Starvation, if not poverty, would be defeated.
For me personally, space and technology where a big component in that future, though I didn't begrudge anyone a soulful, heartfelt journey back to nature. At no place in our evolutionary history could I see a time where the technological ratchet was turned backward, only forward. I still feel like the solution to polluting technologies are non-polluting technologies, not a lack of technology all together.
Over the last twenty years, I have been repeatedly disillusioned. Bush and company are just the latest manifestation of that latent rotten-ness I thought we were outgrowing as a species. TV got dumber, not smarter. People seem more abrasive not more open. Race relations have gotten worse, not better. Africa appears to be mired in poverty and exploitation. The rest of the third world appears the same.
Corporations seem more interested in treating things than curing them. As more and more R&D occurs under corporate banners rather than national ones, we own less and less of our technology. Also, that means more research for profit and less for the betterment of mankind.
Am I right or wrong about these perceptions? Anyone else feel like their future was sold out from under them? Anyone see signs of hope I'm missing?
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