(That Will Affect Our Lives dramatically!)
The trends I observe that are very important for the US over the next decade or so are given for discussion here. None of these trends are new news: they have been written about and talked about for a long time. This is simply my list of top concerns for the nation, and they aid me in forming my own opinions and in voting. Other than that, and using less energy, there is not a lot one person can do about these trends. Perhaps it is the right thing to do to keep these issues in front of as many people as possible.
1. Secularism: The slide into Secularism and its kindred isms continues. Day in and day out, Secularists are weaving their atheistic web around us. Fostered by Elitists in academia, these far left-leaning partisans have remade our schools into dumbed-down indoctrination centers for the Left, our children into pleasure-seeking hedonists, our people shamed to show their patriotism, and our dominant religion, Christianity, has been attacked at every turn. The Left wing of the Democratic Party has gained control, and fellow-travelling socialists and communists (atheists all) are flocking to their support. These turns of events are not heartening.
2. Islam: The rise of militant, fundamentalist Muslims who are bent on making Islam the religion and government of the world is the second trend. To appreciate this situation you must realize that over a billion people worldwide are Muslims, and hold allegiance to Islamic leaders and the Koran. Of these, perhaps a tenth are fundamentalist, who practice jihad (war to the death) against the infidels (non-Muslims, mostly you and me!). There are some 5 million Muslims in the US. A tenth of these may well be Fundamentalist, and hence prone to follow the radical sector of Islam. We will be at war with Islam for a very long time.
3. Birthrates: In the West the birthrates are now below the sustaining level to ensure the populations remain substantially the same. Thus Europe is declining as their influx of Muslims is increasing many fold. It is not unreasonable to expect a Muslim majority in Europe within a decade or two. Europe will then become Islamified! Our birthrate is almost on the money to replenish our people, and we are being inundated with immigrants and illegal aliens as well. It has been predicted that we will have a majority of Spanish-speaking people here in the US by 2050.
4. Energy: We are using up our oil reserves at an increased rate, largely due to China coming on line as a major consumer, but also due to our continued use of gas-guzzling vans and SUVs. While we are playing with hybrid vehicles and researching hydrogen power, it is not progressing fast enough to avoid considerable dislocation of economies in the next decade or two.
5. The Family: Dissolution of the family as a unit has been accelerating over the past two decades. The causes are numerous. Divorce has been made far simpler from a legal point of view. Sexual license and promiscuity has been increasing, with TV and movies (especially with X-rated porn movies) readily available, and sex literature on every newsstand, and on the internet. The easy availability of drugs has poisoned many lives, and has led to sexual involvement of the worst kind to keep up a voracious habit. There are now more single-parent homes than married couple homes in the US.
6. The Internet: The world wide web has been expanding at a furious pace, and has penetrated just about every walk of life and every entertainment channel. Porn and chat sites of all kinds are perhaps the biggest part of the net now all over the world. The weblogs or blogs as they are known are giving the established mainstream media real competition in news analysis. The web has become the research tool of the 21st century, with almost any known subject somewhere in its memories. Communication worldwide is affecting both business and private lives in wrenching ways, and even nations that want to seal their borders find it difficult to keep out the net. The ultimate impact is not clear, but it is certainly changing life as we know it right now.
7. Superpower USA. The USA has found itself to be the only Superpower left standing after 35 years of the Cold War. We are the dominant military power, the dominant economic power, and the dominant scientific and engineering power in the world. Because of its total allegiance to freedom and democracy, the US is a very reluctant world leader, and not at all ready or willing to assume the role of empire-building. We are ready to defend freedoms of others, but we have been vilified for it. We are ill-prepared to shoulder the load an empire represents, and have no ambition to extend our lands.Yet, we will grow into the role over the next half-century.
8. The Environment: The world environment is sick, and a large part of it is out of our control. There is hope that treaties such as the Kyoto Accords will begin the process of removing much of the man-made causes of pollution, but it is a wan hope at best. No one wants to spend the truly astronomical amounts of money that are needed. We must press on to do what we can for clean air, clean water, clean land, and renewal of forests everywhere. We own it to our next generations.
9. China: The rise of China as a modern industrial society, with a strange amalgamation of Communism and Capitalism, and with a growing military might, will influence our lives enormously in the next decades. We will feel this first in North Korea and perhaps Taiwan, as well as financially, since China has huge dollar reserves from her supplying the US and elsewhere with very inexpensive goods of every sort. China will become a superpower over the next fifty years, equaling the US, or even surpassing us. The rapprochement between China and Russia is very unsettling.
10. Nuclear Proliferation: Membership in the nuclear club is growing rapidly. At least the following countries have nuclear weapons now: 1) US; 2) UK, 3) France; 4) Russia; 5) China; 6) Pakistan; 7) India; 8) Israel; and, 9) North Korea. Iran is working on nuclear weapons, and some predict they will have one in 6 to 9 months from now. The Ukraine possesses nuclear weapons from the former USSR. It is not clear whether they are operational now. We are facing the most dangerous time in history, where our passions and our wars could lead to destruction of life on the planet.
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# posted by Mannning @ 1:33 AM
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