Is there hope for the future?

The reason I ask this question because we are immersed in so much doom and gloom at this time.

I could have asked:  “Do you fear for the future?”

Or I could have asked: “Are you optimistic about the future of human life on earth?”

Another way I could work it is this: “Will the future be better than the present or will it be worse?”

There are so many ways of tackling this broad subject area which I often discuss with my friends. I’m always surprised by the different ways each of my friends responds to the general subject area of “the future”, and the different levels of their concerns.

Like me, they have quite different views on all questions relating to the future and their views are generally so fearful, as are mine, but what strikes me most is that we all look at the subject in a GENERALISED WAY. Sometimes we break this huge subject area down into smaller components such as the fear of runaway climate disaster, worsening global Covid 19 epidemic, fear of war between USA and China engulfing the world, which is just another variant of World War III. 

But all of these are “generalised” areas of concern. Another way to consider the future is by viewing it absolutely from our “personal perspective” and by making our personal concerns for the future paramount over all others. In other words: 

“What do I fear most about my future prospects?”

I’ve recently had many discussions with Richard Leigh about how AI and the coming “singularity” which can be viewed either as bringing either boundless benefits or great harm. Just like reaching the “tipping point” in climate change, “the singularity “ is a sort of tipping point in human evolution where the mass of humanity is managed by Artificial Intelligence on a global scale. As if we are not currently being managed by a consortium of global enterprises such as the international manufactures of armaments, the sellers of information services, and the general marketers of unnecessary products such as cars, TVs, mobiles and white goods all heading for the the tip.

When I was a teenager and just getting a grip on music of various sorts including pop, classical and folk music, I picked up a lot of songs from the Pete Seeger Song Book. I also heard Pete Seeger sing at the Melbourne Town Hall when I was about 20 years of age. In his one man concert he performed many of his famous songs including “Little Boxes”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUwUp-D_VV0

He also sang “Take This Hammer” lots of other songs including “Wimoweh”, 

“In the jungle the mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonight” 

which has been deeply analysed and criticised for its various inaccuracies, lack of political correctness and its underlying colonial bias.

But one of the songs which stunned me most that evening was “The Bells Of Rhymney” which Pete Seeger had set to the poem by Idris Davies: 

 The Bells of Rhymney

words Idris Davies, music Pete Seeger

 

Pete Seeger sang Idris Davies' poem The Bells of Rhymney, set to his own music, at a Ballads and Blues concert at St. Pancras Town Hall Theatre on 4 October 1959 that was released by Folklore Records in 1963 on the album Pete Seeger in Concert.

 

Lyrics

 

Oh, what will you give me?

Say the sad bells of Rhymney.

Is there hope for the future?

Cry the brown bells of Merthyr.

Who made the mine owner?

Say the black bells of Rhondda.

And who robbed the miner?

Cry the grim bells of Blaina.

They will plunder willy-nilly,

Say the bells of Caerphilly.

They have fangs, they have teeth,

Shout the loud bells of Neath.

Even God is uneasy,

Say the moist bells of Swansea.

Oh, what will you give me?

Say the sad bells of Rhymney.

 

Throw the vandals in court,

Cry the bells of Newport.

All would be well if, if, if,

Say the green bells of Cardiff.

Why so worried, sisters, why?

Sing the silver bells of Wye.

Oh, what will you give me?

Say the sad bells of Rhymney?

Nearly 60 years later the phrase which woke me out of my slumber this morning is 

“IS THERE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE?”

You can see the song is specifically localised to Wales and Weslh miners and yet it is also global. It speaks of the relationship between miners, workers or entire communities dominated by “mining interests”, moguls or corporations and yet it also speaks to people from all around the world, in different countries, in different cultures and in different economies, all suffering under the tyranny of business interests which rule their lives, damage their health, exploit them and leave them exhausted and poisoned when the mine runs out.

If the song had not spoken globally as well as locally, it would not have been taken up and become as famous as it did in the sixties. 

Just as Little Boxes by Malvina Retnolds which was also introduced to me by Peter Seeger did not just speak of “little boxes” 

“all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same” 

did not speak just for parts of the US, England or Australia, it spoke aptly for what was happening in suburbia all around the world and is still going on even here in my cherished Kyneton today. They are building suburban sprawl in my little town of Kyneton with a new housing complex rising all around where I built this house 10 years ago! One of the reasons I bought this land and built this house is that I thought I would escape suburban sprawl, but I was wrong. I am part of it. It is inescapable! It goes with population growth heading towards 8 BILLION people despite the ravages of Covid 19 which has only taken about 3 MILLION lives so far.

Current World Population

7.9 Billion

 If you would like to view the individual numbers ticking over go here:

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/#:~:text=7.9%20Billion%20(2021)

Of course we cannot yet know what the outcome of Covid 19 will be as it is now exploding like wildfire in some countries such as India and Brazil with huge populations at risk and with the health services already being overwhelmed in those countries. This week, 250,000 new cases reported in India in successive days! That would mean ONE MILLION new cases in four days!

“Is there hope for the future?”

When WW1 came to an end, people may have had hope for peace and quiet and along came the Spanish Flu. It was totally unexpected and what would those survivors have made of that? At the end of WW2, after all that devastation which was so widespread, surely some peace and quiet? No, we cannot do without warfare it seems, so we had Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East, the genocide of Pol Pot in Cambodia, the Balkans, etc., etc. all of which were interspersed with famines in Africa, hurricanes or tornados in other places, earthquakes and tsunamis, and nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl and Fukushima.

So it’s no wonder we all feel “without hope” or “deeply fearful” of the future.

Are there any reasons for us to be optimistic?

Then there’s our own personal fears for our own futures.

We all face the the fear of growing old, getting sick, dying. We all fear losing our jobs, or our businesses. Covid 19 has given many nations the taste of widespread business failure, and even countries such as Australia or New Zealand which have not suffered as many cases of illness or death as in Europe, have experienced extensive economic damage. In our country thousands of small businesses have gone to the wall. Larger ones also. Hundreds of thousands who had good jobs are now without a job and in fear of what comes next.

How could these people, whether they are business owners, operators or workers, be optimistic? From all the news sources I keep up with I see they are clearly shattered. And it’s not just from Covid 19… there have been many communities wiped out by devastating fires, floods and hurricane activity.

So there are plenty of reasons to be “fearful” of the future when the present is not so good. It's hard to have hope for the future when all around us there are stories of doom and gloom, which our news outlets will not let us forget even for a day! 

And then there’s the torn social fabric! The epidemic of drugs and gambling which has ripped our social fabric, torn it to shreds, so that muggings, home breakins and murder have become commonplace. 

Please forgive me for not feeling optimistic.

Finally there are the deepest personal fears. Our fears of growing old and dying, not only a quiet or peaceful departure but much worse, dying in a “home” for the aged, sourced by our Federal Government which has proven beyond any doubt that it simply cannot do the job at all. It gives billions of taxpayer dollars to companies or religious entities which are supposed to look after the aged with care and dignity, only to see them mistreated, abused, not properly fed or looked after in regards to their basic health care. 

So, as I’m now 78 years old I’m scared shitless! Please forgive my indecent language. Most regrettable!

But when I speak with others, my younger friends, Richard and Bill, many others, I see they are just as worried as I am. They are not only worried for themselves, their wives and their children, but also in some cases for their parents. My brother and my sisters and I already experienced how well our parents fared in aged care, fortunately we saw that they were very well looked after, they were not abused. But nowadays there are no guarantees. So that is why on a deeply personal level I fear for my own future, and also for the future of all my close friends and relatives.

I can’t worry about the poor bastards in Czechoslovakia or Hungary who are dying at a much faster rate than people in France, Italy or Poland. I can’t worry about how many Americans are getting the vaccine or how many are not getting it, nor how many are fearful because of all the misinformation which is being pedalled by the conspiracy theorists and the biggest twit of all who is currently off-stage. I can’t be concerned for all the sick and the dying in Brazil because they have an idiot for a president who thinks Covid is just a common cold, despite the fact that his country is in the grip of a pandemic with massive numbers catching the virus, and a huge death rate resulting from this “common cold”.

At the outset of the epidemic which has turned into a pandemic and is not yet over, I knew that it would one day get out of control in some countries like India. And now it is spreading like wildfire. In India a quarter of a million new cases every day recently. 

+260,778 yesterday

+275,306 today

You don’t have to be a mathematics genius to be able to see that will add to more than a million in two days time! And you don’t have to be a genius of any description to imagine that it is only beginning. This wildfire is just taking hold, it is not being controlled. It may reach a stage when it cannot be controlled: “the tipping point”!  Or it may already have reached the “tipping point”! 

I have certainly reached my “tipping point”.

Over and out.

pt

ps., Friday 23rd April 6.15 am.

In the past four days since I wrote this piece, India has posted ONE MILLION new cases of Covid.

This is already a catastrophe. Who can predict where it will go from here?

The difference between India and some European nations who are doing it tough is that hospitals and ICU's in India were already at breaking point some time ago.

It's too scary to imagine what will happen in India in the near future.

pt