We do need a Secretary of the Future. But, like Vonnegut, I'm afraid it's too late.KURT VONNEGUT: Look, I'll tell you. It's one thing that no cabinet had ever had, is a Secretary Of The Future. And there are no plans at all for my grandchildren and my great grandchildren.
DAVID BRANCACCIO: That's a great idea. In other words a Cabinet post--
KURT VONNEGUT: Well, it's too late! Look, the game is over! The game is over.
Here's what one blogger had to say:
Was it really inevitable that we would end up destroying ourselves? Somehow, I can't believe that. I think the human species could have chosen differently. That we didn't is the tragedy. I remember reading an article some years ago about a woman working hard to recover from cancer. She said that her treatment could be summed up in these words: "Learn to change or die." That impressed me hugely and I've never forgotten it. That reality is now before humanity as a species. And still we are determined not to change.Even if there had been a Secretary of The Future it would have been futile. The Secretary would have had to go up against too many unmovables. Such a Cabinet Secretary would have had to disabuse us of the idea of perpetual, or even steady, growth. That immediately implies conflict with religion and politicians always wanting to grow us out of economic challenges. The hopelessness of it all becomes quickly apparent.
I have never blogged before, but after I saw that episode of NO w, I was intrigued by this notion of a Secretary of the Future. What a brilliant concept! True, i believe, too that it would never work in this country, because politicians only care about the next two or four years. In our society, it also seems that people are more REACTIVE than PROACTIVE. It seems that tucked away in each community is a group of forward-thinking people…but what will it take to have an impact on the negative trajectory this lil’ planet is headed down?
ReplyDeleteI, too, remember my biology teacher in high school who, when talking about natural selection, would always say, the rule is, “adapt or die out.” I’m not sure how to end my very first bog entry, so I will leave you with a favorite quote of mine by Oscar Hammerstein, who said, “A bell isn’t a bell/ till you ring it/a song isn’t a song/ till you sing it/and the love in your heart/wasn’t put there to stay/Love isn’t Love till you give it away” I guess Love’s all that’s left in the end.