Hello, and welcome to my blog. My name is Guido Roncallo. My wife Elizabeth reminds me that right now people are hurting and they are looking for positivity, and not a bitter pill to swallow. I agree, and there is actually a great deal to be positive about: the unity and sacrifice being shown by the vast majority of people everywhere. They are thinking about the threat to the human condition that we are experiencing at the present, and they are acting on it.
We need to capitalize on this positive experience. We should all think about the future we face after the coronavirus passes, which may be a while; that gives us plenty of time to think. When we do rid ourselves of the present pandemic I worry that we will return to business as usual and just wait for the next crisis. What we really need to do is to begin preparing for a not-too-distant future when life may change even more dramatically than it has today. Think about a future that guarantees a catastrophe much greater than what we are experiencing now. Think about it, plan for it, and take positive steps to change our present destiny.
We need to pick up our heads and stare at three global problems square in the face and deal with them rather than letting them dictate to us. Those three problems are overpopulation, global warming and misguided governments. Each of them taken alone is dangerous; together they are a lethal combination.
I’m not implying that I’m a great seer, but I am an observer of the world around me, and I’ve tried hard to remain a dispassionate observer. In other words, I’ve tried to use plain old common sense. I’m not talking about uncommon common sense, just regular common sense, the kind most of us have. The problem is that the world is so full of noise and distraction today that it’s hard for us to access it, but regardless of your age it is possible to detach yourself and just view humanity as a whole, if you will try.
Speaking of age, I was born and raised in Miami, Florida – actually South Miami – when doors could be left open at night. That dates me a bit- I’m pushing hard on 70 years old. In fact, my age has a good deal to do with why I’m writing this blog, and no, I’m not looking at my final days and trying to score points to redeem at the Pearly Gates. Quite the opposite.
Based on family longevity and health histories, I probably have the genes to live to 120, and it’s really rather frightening: another 50 years is quite unsettling given my views on the future of humanity. Besides, there’s no way the money will hold out if I do live that long . . . one of many reasons I find to be cynical about the “gift” of longevity that modern medicine is trying to give us.
Common sense: if a loaf of bread cost about fifteen cents when I was a kid and it costs three dollars now, what will it cost in fifty years and how will people on a fixed income afford it? Same for medicines and housing. If the governments of the world keep blowing up the money supply in the name of prosperity without ensuring that all citizens share in it, how will the retired community keep pace? Every wave of retirees will be subject to the fast-declining value of their dollars. No generation is immune!
I’m not just singin’ the blues for the old folks. The young have more than their share of problems. An acquaintance of mine summed up the feeling of young people very well, I think, when he said that they feel hopeful, and hopeless. It doesn’t take much to look at the world today and see that our future is out of control. The older generations can’t just hand it off to the young with a slap on the back; they are powerless in the face of the money and influence that walk the halls of the world’s governments.
Look at it from the perspective of the young: they’ve been saddled with outrageous debt – compliments of unregulated capitalism – with the assurance that they’ll have a brighter future with an education, but they’re inheriting an earth that is straining to maintain its equilibrium in the face of our desecrations (there’s no better word for it) and lack of foresight; they’re inheriting a society that is still ruled by the priorities of the past, priorities which maintain that might makes right and more is better.
If Isaac Asimov had not been ignored when he warned about overpopulation in Let’s Suppose in 1974, if Rachel Carson had not been ignored when she wrote Silent Spring in 1962, if John and Yoko’s Imagine of 1971 hadn’t been dismissed as just a nice thought, if countless people hadn’t been ignored who have all delivered the same message – that we need to stop and think, and change the way we live – what a much better world this would be. I’ll be in good company if you ignore me too.
I won’t go down without speaking my mind; I won’t watch the world go to hell without a fight. The quicker we wrap our minds around our frightening future, the quicker we can take action to soften the blow.
Fellow Boomers: what happened to us? We still have a chance to make a better world for the coming generations. We have votes, we have money; they talk the talk if we will walk the walk, and we should walk with the younger generations beside us. Many of them have more sense than we did- they don’t like debt and they don’t like unappreciated indentured servitude. Neither of those things means they refuse to participate in life, they just want a different life; our way hasn’t proven to be ideal.
To a better future,
Guido