We are the Privileged Ones

There are many places to go in the mind when considering the future. I think we all know on some level that change is the only constant. Look at the past 60 years! We went from black and white TV with two networks to…you fill in the blank. We went from ringing an operator who then connected us manually to our party (on a party line where 5 or 6 other families could pick up and listen in any time) to cell phones.

Think of the evolution of the cell phone from the monster device with pull-out antenna to the pocket portable machine of today that includes a calculator, address book, camera, internet, music, apps…! The first human to be propelled into space happened just 50 years ago. The first home computer introduced by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak hit the marketplace 35 years ago. That computer was the first Apple and it cost $25.

What made this unprecedented progress possible? Cheap energy. When petroleum first became available, more was produced than needed. It was used for oil lamps and medicine but little else. Then in 1878 Karl Benz patented the first combustion engine which became the miracle machine that powered the automobile. Thirty years later, in 1908, Henry Ford designed the Model T which quickly became so popular that they sold faster than Ford could produce them. In 19 years Ford produced 15 million cars.

As of this moment, as I write this article, 19,430,360 cars have been produced already this year, with 4 more rolling off assembly lines worldwide every second. These statistics are available at www.worldmeters.info which also informs us that “…over 600,000,000 passenger cars travel the streets and roads of the world today.” It’s important to note that passenger cars make up only 87% of petro guzzling vehicles. The additional 13% adds another 78 million vehicles to that already staggering figure.

The automobile is a good example of what miracles cheap energy has wrought in our lives. But it is only one example. There are thousands of similar “leaps” in technology which, moment by moment, devour the liquid gold we are pumping out of the earth at an alarming rate.

What does this mean? It means that we are the privileged ones who have enjoyed the benefits of the blinding progress oil has afforded us over the past 60 years. It also means we are the ones responsible for ensuring “life after oil” for the next generations. Our mindset as we proceed is crucial. On this note Tom Atlee of the Co-Intelligence Institute writes:

“Whether I expect the best or the worst, my expectations interfere with my will to act.

I've started viewing both optimism and pessimism as spectator sports, as forms of disengagement masquerading as involvement. Both optimism and pessimism trick me into judging life and betting on the odds, rather than diving into life with my whole self, with my full co-creative energy. I think the emerging crises call us to transcend such false end-games like optimism and pessimism. I think they call us to act like a spiritually healthy person who has just learned they have heart disease: We can use each dire prognosis as a stimulant for reaching more deeply into life and co-creating positive change.

And so I've come to conclude that all the predictions -- both good and bad -- tell us absolutely nothing about what is possible. Trends and events only relate to what is probable. Probabilities are abstractions. Possibilities are the stuff of life, visions to act upon, doors to walk through. Pessimism and optimism are both distractions from living life fully.”

We have before us an unprecedented opportunity to creatively design a future for ourselves and our children’s children. We can be tremendously excited or immobilized by fear. We can employ the same creative genius that spawned the evolutionary leaps ahead of the past 60 years toward formulating plans for the new reality approaching. Or we can bury our heads in the sand and go about business as usual. For a little while longer we still have that choice.