Essentially it predicts that science, technology, progress, and our supposed superiority and military power cannot protect us from the multiplicity of comprehensive and simultaneous disasters we face in the coming years. Our disastrous foreign policy, our dysfunctional educational system, our declining infrastructure, our exhaustion of necessary resources, our reluctance to disavow “developmental sprawl,” our dependence on fossil fuels, our crisis in mental and physical health, our penchant for building prisons rather than caring for our citizens – all signal the need for a revamping of American ideals – even our dreams – of what the future should be for our peoples.
The recognition of the importance of sustainable communities that develop some percentage of self-sufficiency to guard against crisis and disaster is growing, particularly as the economy descends into recession (depression) and inflation soars.
We are behind on so many fronts, with our priorities so dangerous skewed, we risk – in the very near future – losing all the economic and socially responsible gains the visionary few have worked so hard to achieve. Let's examine some of these crumbling dreams, institutions and infrastructures.
Foreign Policy
We're currently involved in two disastrous conflicts that have cost billions of dollars with no perceivable end in sight. Our military is virtually ruined with an estimated cost of billions more to refurbish it again. Combatants in Afghanistan are completing their seventh consecutive tours. Suicides among returning veterans are approaching epidemic proportions. Violent felons may soon be allowed to enter our armed services just as inter-service homicides, rapes and crime has exploded almost exponentially. No longer do our service men and women represent the best we have to offer despite the fact they are often our front line emissaries representing us in foreign nations.
Criminal cases are being prosecuted against our service personnel for crimes committed against foreign nationals in as many as seven different countries simultaneously. The cost in trillions of dollar is insignificant in comparison to the cost of those killed in battle or due to service negligence or misconduct and that does not compare to the thousands of incapacitated, disabled and permanently scarred veterans that comprise a significant amount of the generation currently available to defend the mation.
Those who have not suffered injury or disabilities are worn to a frazzle. It could be generations before we achieve the level of conventional strength we had. This not only increases our vulnerability but undermines our ability to make good defensive and foreign policy decisions because we are forced to rely more on the heavier weapons in our arsenal – putting us, and the world, at greater risk by forcing us to play a heavier hand, consistently pushing up the stakes.
Economy
No one really seems to understand that the economy is not now, nor has it ever been, truly predictable. The inconsistencies of human nature and our natural environment preclude us from knowing the real factors that drive environmental change and economic stability. Certainly, China and India will continue to grow as powerhouses, competing with us for resources – both in human and in natural terms. Our horrendous foreign debt makes us vulnerable to all kinds of economic risk and instability. Non-aligned corporations and businesses tuned to the bottom line, with no real allegiances, will be drawn to foreign opportunity as has already been evidenced by outsourcing and a general momentum away from the continental US.
US workers are not realistically capable of competing on an even level with multitudes of workers who expect less, work longer, have few protections and are highly motivated by necessity to compete. The dollar, backed by nothing, will continue to fluctuate wildly as a willow in the wind. The US recession will continue to affect foreign markets and that will, in turn, cause an even greater number of international businesses to look elsewhere for stability.
Employment
The paradigm has always been – go where the jobs are. American workers are less able to do that with soaring fuel and housing costs, combined with burgeoning foreclosures or the inability to sell the houses they own. We are also seeing evidence of the seemingly natural inclination to hunker down in times of stress, not take risks and expect that these types of economic times are cyclical.
The massive influx of baby-boomers who are not retiring as expected, but are being laid off, are unable to physically do the job and find no provision for retraining may drive up unemployment rates to previously unheard of levels. Add to that a very real discrimination against elderly workers, force them to compete for mid-level less skilled jobs could lead to a nightmare of unemployment with no safety net.
Schools, colleges and vocational training programs are years behind the curve in attempting to train or retrain the existing and emerging workforces. Young and middle-age workers are being forced to compete against each other and the elderly for available jobs. All over the nation, we see literally hundreds of applicants for every job and with only one six month term of unemployment benefits available and virtually no viable retraining programs to boot.
Climate change
No matter what the reason, it's happening. The results over the next 50 years will cost in the trillions. From the need to fund recovery efforts from disasters, to changes in coastal areas and port infrastructures, we're looking at a massive problem financially and logistically for the world and for the U.S. Add to that the potential for world famine and disease from habit changes and climate variations, drought and flood – you've got a recipe for unpredictable economic instability.
Education
We once touted our educational system as a model for the world, but we got lazy and rested on our laurels. We became consumed with socially engineering equality in education, requiring an immense administrative drain on our available resources. Our teachers became underpaid, our programs diluted, and our vision unrealistically focused on turning out entire generations of college graduates, ignoring vocational training and skills tracking to identify individual student strengths and weaknesses to help determine appropriate educational goals.
We became enamored more with high school and college social environments than we did with actual education. In truth, we were convinced that these environments somehow reinforced our values and socially acclimatized our students in a positive way. Only recently have we come to understand how wrong that was.
Our standards have fallen so low that a huge percentage of our students can barely cope with the day to day demands of our increasingly complicated and confusing culture and marketplace. They have difficulty understanding the currents that buffet them to and fro, having little capacity for creativity and less for discernment when it comes to public policy and socio-political decision-making. They are ripe to be harvested and led by a charismatic figure, spouting popular rhetoric, encouraging prejudices and fomenting divisiveness.
Consequently, the rest of the world is jumping ahead of us in leaps and bounds educationally, creating the minds that will lead the world in the next century.
Science
The myth that science cannot be bought has been exploded. Monies for pure research without predetermined results or pre-programmed financial gain have virtually disappeared. We are losing our best and brightest minds to other countries almost as fast as they can buy a ticket.
With both a dysfunctional education system and a lack of will to hold and create the scientific minds necessary to keep us competitive in a rapidly changing and evolving world, we face the possibility of becoming more and more reliant on unpredictable forces and alliances for our necessities and resources.
Infrastructure and development
Our national bone structure is rapidly rusting, breaking down and becoming obsolete. Rather than bite the bullet when we could have afforded to, we postponed the inevitable and now face the replacement of a decrepit infrastructure that we can no longer afford to rebuild.
The model adopted at the inception of the nation was to simply ignore failing systems, move on and rebuild new ones elsewhere. If an area fell into ruin – we'd simply ignore it to find another pristine environment and create the same obsolescence all over again.
This is the model of American development and the essential expression of a throw-away philosophy. It has become an accepted norm to consider the reconditioning, redevelopment, and rebuilding of infrastructure as too expensive, too time-consuming and essentially non-profitable to be considered.
If an area goes into decline, the answer is always to search for a new area to develop in the misguided belief that infusing another area with “upscale” development will somehow trickle down into the community and help the declining area (by default) as well – as if the presence of wealth has ever diminished the presence of poverty!
In reality, it is simply a pretense for the “royalty” to separate themselves from the “peasants” without any deliberate intention to improve their condition, and results in a simple juxtaposition of slums and suburbs. The days of the philosophy that unused or undeveloped lands are “wasted” passed away with the 19th century. The only saving grace is that a realization of the importance of public lands and resources remaining accessible to the public is beginning to gain steam among our local rural populations.
Finally, let me be clear that I am not advocating creating small urban jungles – the concepts of environmental space and designs that incorporate the natural world to give us a sense of space is absolutely necessary in planning for the redesigning and rehabilitation of our communities through implosive development.
It's not about filling up every inch of space with concrete and steel – it’s about creating an environment we can live in without wasting space and without sacrificing quality of life.
Transportation
When combustion engines were relatively new and petroleum plentiful and cheap, the model of “sprawl development” worked. Affordable transportation allowed for distance between living area and necessities, work and play. Those days are gone.
Our highways require incredible amounts of manpower and money to maintain and our local communities cannot keep pace – particularly if we're going to keep “sprawling” out, creating the need for more and more roadways.
Not only are the good old days of the automobile culture passing due to a decline in cheap and affordable transportation, they are gone because many communities and citizens have witnessed countless examples of areas losing their cherished qualities through poor resource and development planning based on the concept of “sprawl development,” and facilitated through use of cheap individual transportation.
Even if cheap transportation were to become feasible again, we need to consider what we lose with this type of development philosophy. Growth can never be infinite. It has limits. The closer one approaches those limits the more freedoms are lost and the more quality of life is affected.
It is time to consider implosive development – making sure every inch of space in a developed area has been utilized before new areas are considered – and even imposing eventual limits to development altogether. This goes against the grain of a traditional view of progress that demands explosive growth, but conforms to the ideology that quality of life and resources is more important than continual expansion.
Actually, it has already been proven, that the continual renewing, redesigning and redevelopment of communities internally to keep up with technological progress can be just as economically profitable and stimulating as explosive sprawl development.
But planning for transportation must conform to this new model – emphasizing public transit methods, and focusing on implementing shorter distances to necessities. This can be realized by redesigning communities to achieve as much self-containment and sufficiency as possible. Advances in communications will facilitate these changes, allowing much of our commerce (and many of our daily activities) to be achieved without the physical necessity of us transporting ourselves to distant locations and resources.
Energy
In the early days of the American Colonies there was little consolidation of anything. One was responsible individually for acquiring almost all the necessities needed to live.
As communities and economies changed, consolidation of services increased. The technology required a huge infrastructure and administrative entity to provide services. The Grid. Those days, too, are passing. What good is energy if it is too expensive to utilize? What good is a car if you can't afford to drive it?
The technology will soon be available and affordable to return to the days of individuals creating and sharing their own energy development resources in small localities. The days of The Grid That Serves Everyone are numbered. This re-creation of our energy infrastructure needs to be a local priority agreement.
With enough minds and resources, local communities will be able to offer straight forward conversion plans and, with the right incentives and encouragement, we will free up resources for use toward other needs rather than continuing to feed inefficient and resource draining infrastructure. The technology is there and it works.
Water
Water belongs to everyone. It needs to be protected. It needs to be as pure as we can make it. Everyone knows by now how much of the world is suffering a crisis of potable water.
Any waste or contamination of any water resource available to us for any reason cannot be permitted. Traditional practices, economic interests, etc. – nothing can be allowed to take precedence over the protection and preservation of our water resources. Period, the end.
Food
We take it for granted. We shouldn't. Costs are spiraling as we speak and no one knows how high they will climb. History teaches us that even the richest areas are only one significant drought away from famine.
In a world of just-in-time delivery, our risk is even greater. Placing as much local agricultural land as can be put into service for food crops, using sustainable and organic principles, should be a priority. Co-ops and other public resource grocery outlets should be encouraged and laws or codes which prohibit or discourage local agriculture should be challenged as counterproductive to sustainability. Real hazards to consumer health can be met with education programs not codified regulations.
Identification of suitable grain crops to provide a minimum level of food resource security for the local population should be identified and the acreages to host them utilized. A significant local economy relating to food is possible and can be created. It starts with every citizen (whether they currently buy local or not) requesting their local market provide an ever-expanding section of locally harvested vegetables, nuts, fruits, berries, dairy, meats and beverages. The co-op is also the perfect place to start an internal bartering system and creating alternative currency replacements supported by “real” value.
Tokens, paper or an electronic system could be created to act as an alternative source of currency that would allow people to barter, trade and exchange for services as well as utilize common currency. This would only serve to strengthen our local economy and focus our vision on where traditional expenditures are lost or wasted.
Economic Development
Local economies in many areas have gone stagnant. Everyone wants to believe in the cyclical nature of economic booms but we need to be asking ourselves if that cycle were to become undependable what is Plan B?
Our age-old model asks for development, growth, new houses, more people, more businesses – until all the wonderful qualities we cherish are dissipated and the wealthy move on to a “new” Lake County somewhere else, leaving the rest of us with a used-up run-down version of rural suburbia. Is that all there is?
Perhaps by taking the tourist model forward to encouraging emerging technological companies in the green industry to locate their headquarters (not their production factories) in the county, and encouraging state and national businesses and organizations to host trade shows, conferences and gatherings locally, we could sustain a significant portion of our economy without a need for significant growth.
Citizens would need to take an active role in this process, helping to identify the potential businesses and companies; even facilitating their contact with appropriate county representatives. The only necessity would be to make a commitment to creating an efficient, reliable and technologically advanced countywide communications network. If we built it, and educated them to our attributes, they would come – but they would also leave.
With targeted outreach to information and technology based businesses, those that chose to headquarter here wouldn't require much additional infrastructure but could bolter our reputation as a place that chooses quality of life and resources over ill-conceived economic development and unnecessary growth.
Government and services
Face it: many American's have become spoiled children who want everything done for them by someone else. They have come to expect it. We have to change that.
Government is failing us because we have forgotten that we are the government. It's us versus us. We need to stop relying on state and federal monies and programs and look to support ourselves. In the old days it was local communities that regulated their health and welfare through churches and community organizations. Often people paid dues to those organizations to support the less fortunate and provide resources for the needy.
When those systems passed away, we lost an important measure of a community's viability. If we are too individually isolated from those less fortunate than ourselves we destroy the safety nets that protect all of us from severe economic misfortune. It is our responsibility to take care of our neighbors – not Sacramento's and certainly not Washington's. They could care less.
We must understand that we are more vulnerable to crisis when we disavow or remove ourselves from the circle of responsibility we share for each others welfare. Our citizenry must become proactive and begin choosing to create and fund our own programs to fix our streets, employ our out of work populace, support our needy and indigent, and participate in the planning and implementation of programs that protect what and who we love. We need to develop hubs of communication and action that educate, plan, finance, organize and create step-by-step solutions, individually and communally, to each of the challenges we face. Example – KPFZ 88.1
All these issues are big money issues. Where will the money come from? We just can't keep printing it willy-nilly like we have been. The currency has to be based on something and good will and high hopes aren't enough. From the highest level of national policy to the smallest locality we're running short. I haven't seen a plan yet that will change that reality.
The architects of the next age must face the challenge of internal redevelopment, refusing the gluttonous and perishable demands of sprawl that threaten the fragile and finite resources that support us. The planet is in the process of changing its face. Our communities must be redesigned and rebuilt even if it requires tearing them down and re-building them one brick at a time.
Space, energy, waste disposal, transportation and proximity to services and resources must be integrated with artistry, beauty and a blending with the natural environment. The technology and systems to accomplish this are being designed as we speak.
Take, for example, the HVAC heating and cooling solution utilized for a skyscraper in Asia. It was created from the study of a termite colony where the temperature of each cell of their housing structure never varied more than one degree. This natural technology was copied effectively and efficiently into the design of the building structure.
The examples are there. Whether we become a third world nation or not is beyond one county's control. How we fare as a community in regard to having access to affordable necessities and an acceptable standard of living – is still up to us. Our willingness to fore-go our cherished prejudices and ideologies and commit to harnessing our creativity, ingenuity and willingness to compromise – to benefit all our citizens—is the challenge.
My opinion? There are too many selfish stick-in-the-muds that will resist change at all costs to allow the fixes that must be made unless we find a way to force it down their throats!
Third World, brace yourselves, here we come!
James BlueWolf is a artist and author. He lives in Nice.
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