I think right now my biggest concern for the future is getting through the immediate future, meaning the future where generations with older concepts of how the world should be are still running the show and have a large amount of authority and power. For example I've heard some older folks here in America bemoan the fact that hardly any younger person they know takes pride in, or calls themselves, an American anymore. One of them going so far as to note that a lack of national identity is one of the early signs of a country on the verge of collapse.
I'm not sure if that's true, but I do feel pretty sure that it's not all that big a deal if I don't identify as American first. Hell, I don't identify as any particular ethnicity, really. What cultural background I come from isn't really all that important to me, and I'd imagine I'm not alone in that. Increasingly it seems like we as people have less problems with countries or a particular ethnicity as we do with particular PEOPLE. When I talk about "Sand Rats" I'm not talking about Middle Eastern people in general, I'm talking about the extremists who are so caught up in whatever fantasy their leader has warped their chosen religion into, that they're being completely obnoxious and barbaric for no other reason than 'My God told me to do it.' On the whole I feel bad for many people in Middle Eastern countries. Many seem to be stuck in the middle of conflicts that they never asked to be involved in. They don't seem to have a lot, and what little they do have is constantly being shot full of holes and blown up by either crazy people or foreigners. If they're angry, I don't blame them.
Seeing ourselves as inhabitants of the world first, as opposed to inhabitants of a country, faith, or ethnicity, seems like something reasonable to me. But I suppose you could call them the 'old guard' appears to feel differently. People around who decry that 'China will own us!' or 'You want us to all be Communists!' It's enough to make me want to headdesk, and it scares me. It scares me because as younger generations drift further and further from the ideas and concepts that these people hold dear, the more loud and desperate they seem to get. The Newsroom put it very well when they did a scene about how America is NOT the greatest country in the world. (to be fair the end is a bit sketch when he talks about moral reasons, since everyone has a different set of morals, but the gist is excellent regardless of what side of the politics you're on.) But these people don't seem to get it. They don't understand, and as they get more desperate to...bring back the old days, or whatever their goal is...I'm afraid they'll take more and more drastic measures. And I'm afraid that, good as it is for current and newer generations to be part of an increasingly globalized society, they'll be looking the other way out of ignorance when those drastic measures hit, and when they do see what's going on, I'm afraid they won't know how to fight back or it'll be too late.
I don't care which party runs the country. I don't care if Billy McBigBucks gets return on his investment of backing a candidate. (He shouldn't be holding that guy's leash, but that's a different story.) As long as we're moving forward as people, as a country, as a species, I'm fine with it. The reason I vote is to keep the craziest, desperate people out of positions of power. The ones that will genuinely try to backpedal and attempt to undo any progress we've made. That's all. Semi-apathy is one thing, but total apathy is bad. With the amount of young people I know who take very little interest in making sure we don't lose what progress we've made towards being better, I worry that some person with antiquated ideals will come in thanks to that apathy, and royally maul the system, making things worse not just for this country but possibly, due to economic and military obligations and interconnectivity, other parts of the world.
That's what scares me about the future.
