Finding a Path (a Foundation)
Our actions and inactions help determine the path we take in life. Collectively, all our individual paths will help to determine what our future world will look like. There are many different possible paths that we could take into the future. Many of these paths could take us to very different futures than the others. Obviously, some of these possible futures would be much better for us and all life than the others. My hope is that we will all take paths that will lead us to the best and brightest future possible.
To figure out which path we should take, we must first know where we are starting from and where we want to go. Then, we will need to evaluate all the paths that could possibly get us from here to there, so we can find the simplest and most direct one. Finally, we must follow our chosen path while correcting for any unexpected roadblocks and ensuring that all of us make it to our destination. Of course, the sooner we start going down this path, the less time, money and other resources we would waste by continuing to go down the wrong path.
To find our paths, we need to ask ourselves a few questions. The answers to these questions will help us to narrow our list of possible paths and ensure that the paths we take will get us where we want to go.
We want to go to a future where we and our decedents can live lives that would be as close as possible to whatever lifestyle we and they want. To do that, our governments must allow anyone who is not causing undue harm to others and to our environment to have the freedom to choose how they live their lives. Our future world must also be free from as many of our current problems as possible and make it harder to create new problems.
In addition, our future world must also be a place where all living things can live their lives in their own way, without harmful interference from us. We want to have a world that has a rich diversity of life, and that helps us to live in harmony with all life.
We start from where we are today and with all our current problems. We cannot start from where we think or wish we were, or from where we could have been if things had been different. We have what we have, and we know what we know, nothing more and nothing less. This may not be the best starting point, but it is what it is, and we will need to make the most of it. The key is to start now, before things get worse.
We start by reexamining any ideas about how we think things should be and how we have been told things should be. We need to take a fresh look at every aspect of our lives, our families, our civilization, our governments and all our interactions. Many of our current ideas come from a time when the world was a very different place. We now have access to far more information and technology than our ancestors ever had, so we should be able to come up with some better ideas.
We must keep in mind that we now have much more power to shape our future for the benefit or the detriment of ourselves, our children and our planet. Our actions can now have much bigger and more far-reaching consequences. This means that by clinging to even the simplest little wrong idea about how we think things should be, we might not only prevent ourselves from implementing some change that could help us to create a better future but might also keep us on our current destructive path.
Of course, we may find that many things are good the way they are, but we will not know for sure until we have taken an objective look at everything. Nevertheless, with all our current problems, it is obvious that we will need to come up with more than just a few new ideas.
To move from our starting point, we will need to look at all our problems and figure out which ones are the problems and which ones are just symptoms of other problems. We want to work on the real problems and not waste our time on trying to fix the symptoms. When we have fixed the real problems, we will have fixed their symptoms.
Each solution must not only work for the given problem but must work together with all the other solutions that we come up with. We need to have not only solutions, but a complete picture of the future where everything works together and can continue to work together for the long term. We simply do not have the time, nor the resources needed to risk trying some patched-up version of what we have today.
There may be many possible solutions to any given problem, so the first thing to do is to brainstorm a lot of different ideas, which could include solutions that are both old and new. These solutions might end up including some ideas that sound a bit crazy or out of this world, but, if nothing else, they may be useful in helping us to start thinking in the right direction.
Then, we want to evaluate each possible solution to see how well it fits with what we have laid out as our philosophical principles, goals and guidelines for a better future. We also want to evaluate each possible solution to see how well it would solve the problem, since some solutions would be more feasible, would be simpler, and would work better than others. Even if a possible solution might solve the problem, we also want to consider whether it would cause any new problems that would need to be solved or not. The result of all of this should be a good number of workable solutions.
Once we have our workable solutions, we will need to see whether they will work together or not. Just because a solution could solve a given problem does not mean that it is the solution that we would want to use. We not only want solutions that would solve their targeted problems, but solutions that will work well when combined with the other solutions and that do not end up creating new problems. From the final combination of workable solutions, we should be able to come up with a framework for individuals, groups, businesses and governments to build a future civilization that really works and is sustainable.
Once we know what we want the future to look like, have determined what changes we need to make, and have determined the costs and benefits of each, we must evaluate the different options for mapping out our path. An important thing to look at is the order in which to make the changes.
For instance, it will be easier to get started with changes that have higher benefits or lower costs than with changes that have higher costs or lower benefits. In addition, some changes may not be feasible until after other changes are in place or may need to be made simultaneously with others for them to work or to get the most benefits for the least cost. In some cases, we may not be able to immediately implement a solution. Instead, we may need some temporary patches to tide us over while transitioning from where we currently are to where we want to go.
With our evaluation of the needed changes, we can map out some possible paths to a better future. To decide which path we take, we will need to look further to see which one has the best combination of being easier, less expensive, less disruptive, and more direct than the others. In addition, this path must be complete and well mapped out, so that it is clear and easy for everyone to follow it to our destination.
Although the cost of delaying any needed changes may be high, the best way to get us to make these changes may be to start small. Our first step would be to find a group of individuals who are dedicated to creating this better future.
Then, we would bring enough of these trail blazers together in an appropriate place where they could start clearing the trail and building the path. This appropriate place might be a town or city, but it must be a place that can be transformed into an example of what the future could look like.
Once we see how good our future could be, we would not only be willing, but would be eager, to start down this path.
Given our impending and current energy problems, there is a real danger of our economy faltering. Along with energy, there are many other critical economic and environmental issues that need to be worked on, like diminishing natural resources and habitats, overpopulation, pollution, climate change, and transportation problems. If our economy is too weak or our environment is in bad shape, it would make it more difficult to make good progress on fixing many of our other problems.
In fact, a strong economy may help to reduce the burden of some of our other problems while giving us access to the financial resources needed to make the needed changes. For instance, a strong economy would help to reduce the burden of things like poverty, budget deficits and crime. On the other hand, our environment is in real trouble, with many species on the brink of extinction, and with climate change (global warning) nearing a tipping point.
Therefore, I do not believe that either our economic nor environmental problems can wait, so the economy and the environment would seem to be the most important places for which we need to start finding solutions and taking the first steps on our future path. The good news is that, if done correctly, improvements in our economy should help our environment, and improvements in our environment should help our economy. Of course, we should not put off implementing solutions to other problems just because our economic and environmental problems appear to be the most important ones.
Of course, we will need the help of our governments to make the political, legal and constitutional changes that we will need to travel down our path to a better future. This means that we will need the help of enough of our representatives who are willing to enact these changes. Unfortunately, this is a place where we may run into a snag, since many of our representatives seem to work more for their political party, their wealthy campaign contributors and many different special interest groups than they do for their constituents.
Therefore, to change this situation and to get the better representation that we need, we will need to change our election laws. Unfortunately, to change our election laws, we may first need to get better representation. Therefore, we must hope that enough of our existing representatives plus some new representatives we can elect are concerned and responsible citizens themselves and will see the benefits of these changes and proceed accordingly. Otherwise, we may be forced to delay many of our changes until we can finally elect enough better representatives.
I would like to have started my discussion with our economic and environmental problems, since it is important to show how addressing them can best lead us to a better future. Once this had been done, it would then be easier to highlight the need to deal with our other problems.
However, given the roadblocks that could come from our current governments, political change may be needed before our economic, environmental or other problems can be adequately addressed. Therefore, I will start by tackling our political and legislative problems, then I can address our economic and environmental problems, and subsequently go on to deal with some of our other problems.
In each of the following chapters and sections, I will tackle our various problems. For each problem, I will try to describe it and then present a solution that will meet our goals and guidelines. In each case, I believe that my solutions to our problems are better than what we have today, but they may not be the only, or even the best, solutions.
I will mainly be concentrating on talking about our problems here in the United States, but we must realize that many of our problems are also global problems. My hope is that we can solve our problems, and this will show the rest of the world that there is a better way, so that individuals, groups, businesses and governments around the world will follow in our footsteps.
Preview -
Preview of the challenges to be overcome by Our Future Path.
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