What is your vision of a better world?

I am certainly going to talk about this idea. it will happen, but we have to go through some really serious stuff first, as a human race. This is not going to be easy, and in the fraction  of the World that is, to coin a phrase: "Unyoung, Uncoloured, Unpoor", events will not be as terrible as elsewhere. Most of the horrors of climate change will be upon the undeveloped third world, where so many will perish that it will be a charnel house. But the impacts on the first World are going to be huge as well. Life, for the next 30 years, is going to be fairly tough, in many aspects, and will only slowly settle down into a new system of life. What matters, is that somehow, the human race keeps going. So we have to be wide eyed, realistic, and practical, as well as idealistic. or we will face a far tougher future. I think that some remote viewing is a good idea. To start, with what we can see, if something is to be done, is a good place to start. 

This is a rough attempt at remote viewing. It feels more like a combination of remote viewing that I've done in the past and logical thinking.  I don't trust the logical thinking part but it's what I've got right now. So hear goes. I want the chance to revise as my visions get clearer.   I hope to go on retreat next month.  That's when I get really clear long term visions.  But here are some ideas that flow: 

Thinking about the year 2100 in the U.S..  

• I see a world still in transition  from one model of living to another. There has been a lot of migration both to different regions of the country and to different types of communities.   A lot of people have moved to strong local communities that have a greater self sufficiency.
• Many new communities are centered around farming.  
• The central farming we have now is diminished, although still working and necessary.  There are still mass centers of livestock, like large poultry farms, and vast greenhouses growing food.
•  Global centralization has greatly diminished but it still exists.  It's still in flux.  Countries that had been great sources of rice, for example, are under water. Other countries are too hot to live in them.  
• The tropical fruit industry has completely shifted because of some regions being under water. It's in disarray.
• Food is the most expensive commodity now. 
• Greenhouses control temperature and moisture in a state-of-the-art way that uses sustainable energy, mostly solar, and minimizes plants' need for moisture and nutrients. Local communities supplement these centralized farms with local farms.
• I also see a wide range in the way localities operate.  Some parts of the country will continue in similar fashion as today.  They will live harsher existences under the old patriarchal model, like sharecropping and near slavery to some wealthy barons. This is the logical outcome of our current system.  Other communities will operate according to altruistic, matriarchal model for the good of all. 
• Leaders in the thriving communities will have to be primarily motivated by altruism rather than self interest. They will see the people they are leading as a tribe. There will be limits on how much a leader and top leadership can earn.
• There will be a wide range of communities  in the Western world .  I see one model that exists today that will work for some -- the spiritual community. Not religious though.  Everyone contributes except those who are too young, too infirm, or physically or mentally challenged. it's a combination of free market and socialism, where certain entitlements will exist, like health care and minimum income.  
• I see another model that looks a little like Denmark.  Take a look at Denmark. It can sustain a very large community - in the millions of people. 
• Social scientists will study the range of communities and write about the ideal size and arrangements.  The answers to these questions in part already exist. I need to look closer at this another time.
• I'd like for our January 22 Read the Future night to breeze past 2018 and 2019 and focus more on the very long term.  

Jeanne, you are striking such a chord with me on this topic. Live the change is something always on my mind. The more positive beautiful future to me is; harmony. I am definitely getting better at eating more harmoniously......but finding clothing harmoniously made has been a bigger challenge

Thanks for your predictions Jeanne:)

In my idea of a better world the economic system would be reimagined with something that allows everyone to have a miminum standard of living or income or similar. I don't think our current capitalist system can continue way into the future along the lines it currently is. Something will have to change if we want to eradicate poverty, hunger and inequality. I don't know what it would be replaced with, or how it would be changed. Maybe something like the Basic Income Experiments being conducted around the world ( http://basicincome.org/news/2017/05/basic-income-experiments-and-those-so-called-early-2017-updates/).

I do believe we will get there one day. We'll have to get through some trying times first I think but they will serve to motivate us to shape a better world.

Thank you Blue and Lightfooted.

Lightfooted, thinking of your wisdom about harmony and balance. The insanity of kids being rushed through highschool and college with mounds of homework and frenzy to get the top jobs, and make the most money, is way out of balance.  Day-to-day, we can check our own harmony as you put it, by feeling the harmony of various aspects of our lives. For me harmony requires a constant need to check in with self. 

Blue -Thank you for focusing on income levels and for providing that link. Such a key concept.  Minimal income levels were a specialty of mine way back in the 1970's (but I'm rusty now).  I had actually co-authored a book on the subject (The Definition and Measurement of Poverty (Westview Press, 1978 under my former married name of Oksman) where we looked at where the minimal income levels need to be drawn.

Some countries have found a happy medium for people.  In Denmark, for example,  a schoolteacher who makes $65,000 a year lives as well and as carefree as someone in the U.S. who makes about $200K.   She gets 6 weeks of vacation, has full health care, and it's the same quality health care that we get in the U.S., and a very long parental leave when a baby comes. Also free higher education. 

Society and human culture will evolve in the next 100 years to contain the ego-based acquisition and control impulses of capitalism in the same way that mothers now control the raw id of their two year olds.  Greed and selfishness will be thought of as children's tantrums, to be grown out of.  Early socialization will educate children with cooperative and caring values. 

Oh, and: There will be floating cities on the ocean over the areas where plastic refuse has concentrated. These will be 'carbon recovery' centers. People who live there work in sea-mining (for plastics) and carbon-reduction forms of remanufacture. 

And: any animal species that has gone extinct will be able to be re-booted from DNA samples.  This may be tougher for insects, but we've got mammals covered.

The biggest change I would like to see is for people to realize that they are the co-creators of their life in the Divine sense, that every person is literally that powerful, that they can reshape their life in the exact way they what it to be. I think if the majority of us can get there, then anything is possible...the future can be as beautiful and bright as we want it to be and only then can we truly respect and honor each human being - or any other life on Earth - as they are meant to be.

Runestone, Diana, and Blue -- as I read your beautiful visions, I see you are describing a more evolved human -- plain and simple. We are going to evolve.  And the pain of what we are going through now is going to help us evolve:  

--There will be a greater and profound, appreciation for nature. Appreciation is an understatement.  Humans will see nature as their mother. They will follow her call, learn from her, show their appreciation and reverence - the way the ancients did.  We will show reverence for animals, trees, the rivers and oceans.  We will celebrate the sun and the rain.  We will understand her cycles. 

--A deep understanding of our oneness, that everyone and everything is interconnected in a vast complex web of mutual benefit. I care for that tree and that mouse because, in it's an integral part of a web that cares for me. 

--The importance of quiet time, time to reflect and come back to our connection and wise selves.

--Raising children will be considered a sacred privilege.  There will be training to prepare a woman for motherhood and a father for fatherhood. If a woman is struggling with this task, the whole community will come together to help her.  

--Children will be raised with art and music training, and agriculture - as important as science.  And gratitude, and meditation. The goal will be to create emotionally strong and free individuals.  Emotional freedom. Freedom from dogma.  

I love this thread.