I don’t know this country anymore.
Granted, this feeling of hopelessness has been with me before; that was in 2000 and we all know the consequences of THAT election.
I do know my community and my state. Nevada again proved that it chooses to be part of the new world, the one where diversity is considered a strength instead of a weakness. Nevada proved that it is part of the West Coast new economy, not wistfully wishing for a return of the past that can never be. We harvest the energy from the sun and the geothermal energy from the earth. Even notoriously libertarian Washoe County in the north voted for the new world. We’re imperfect in a multitude of ways, but we are looking, thinking and dreaming in a forward direction.
I can’t say that for the bulk of this country. Apparently a racist-in-chief (potential alternative titles: molester-in-chief or fraudster-in-chief) was the appealing alternative to a serious woman who is a prepared for the Presidency as anyone has ever been in the history of the United States.
I won’t speculate on what people were thinking, because I don’t believe thinking had anything to do with it. To there extent there was a thought, it was the same thought that sent Tea Party idiots to Congress in 2010, turning Congress into a do-nothing body of nay-Sayers and anti-science boobs. Elections have consequences; a fact everyone keeps denying in one way or another. This election was another exercise in failing to take responsibility for the last one; and another exercise in denying the inevitability of the future.
Over the next few days the pundits will declare that the people wanted “change.” On the contrary, my friends, change is exactly what they are afraid of.
- They fear the changing skin color of their neighbors.
- They fear the changing social contract that allows people to love and marry whomever they want.
- They fear the changing economy that is leaving them behind for reasons they do not understand.
- Most importantly, they are just plain afraid.
The irony is that there really is a serious storm on the horizon to be afraid of and Republicans (never mind Trump) are preternaturally incapable of addressing the big challenges ahead. That challenge is not, contrary to what many believe, international trade deals and the outsourcing of US jobs. That is a problem, but fairly viewed, its just a stepping stone to the big problem that is closing in on its heals.
That big challenge is the one that arrives when there is not longer employment for most people. That day is coming much sooner than most people realize.
Its not accident that Elon Musk recently stated, in typically bland terms, that we are going to need a universal income. Its not an accident that the Swiss considered, and rejected (for now), instituting a universal income.
Automation is rapidly overtaking the economy. Simply put, business always prefers automation to human beings for reasons that always boil down to money. From where I sit I expect the crisis of joblessness will hit full force within 20 years, if not a lot sooner.
We’ve been losing jobs to automation and technology since the early nineteenth century. But until the 21st Century arrived, new jobs have always appeared in new occupations not previously seen. The pace and nature of change no longer allows that happy process to occur. The fact is that we’ve gone from replacing human brawn to replacing human brains.
There is no where to go from here. There will not be a lot of new jobs appearing as the old ones fade; unless you think of a one-way trip to Mars as a career move.
It’s not just factories. Driving jobs will soon be automated out of existence. Even airline pilots will likely become superfluous in time. Lawyers, healthcare professionals, bankers, brokers, salespeople and virtually every other profession will be made irrelevant or automated away until only a few humans overseers remain in those occupations. Even the people who create and program the machines will invent their own jobs out of existence. Those of us who do not oversee the machines are going to have to find something else to do; some other way to survive.
But if you look at that scenario, you have to realize that the entire fabric of our society and culture will be rudely and unceremoniously ripped to shreds as these changes take hold and fewer and fewer people hold all the reigns of power and wealth. Since the basis of wealth for the majority of people – the labor they can perform – is no longer needed, one can only concluded that money and wealth will simply ricochet among the wealthy, leaving more and more people out in the cold.
That is a formula for social upheaval on a Global scale. This is World War Last closing in upon us. Putting the GOP in charge now – the party of those holding the reigns of power and wealth – is the equivalent of putting the Fox in charge of the Hen House, then asserting that the decline in the population in Hens is due to their own failings. Instead of preparing for the future we are going to double down on the fading past. Will someone soon suggest the return of slavery, though perhaps in a more “equal opportunity to be a slave” form?
I expect the Trump Administration to be the most scandal-plagued administration in modern history. I expect the first of many scandals to erupt before the inauguration – the Trump University fraud case is just one of many “known” things coming down the pipeline. The eighteen women who say they were subjected to inappropriate touching, etc., is probably just the tip of that particular iceberg. One could hope that this would induce some paralysis; more likely it will make it easier for the GOP Congress to push through one legal abomination after another on behalf of their overseers. After all, the only policies Trump ran on are “kill the immigrants” and “kill Obamacare.” It’s open season on equality and Progressivism.
You want change? You are going to get far more change than you ever bargained for.