Well, you might assume you’ve set me an impossible task but not at all.
I do have something to share from that sphere that is not only positive but life-affirming as well.
Have you read Barack Obama’s guest editorial in Wired magazine?
Wired is an American monthly with both print and online versions and reports on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy and politics.
Occasionally, they invite someone to be a guest editor and for the November edition it is Obama.
They are calling the edition Frontiers and in promoting the forthcoming edition, Obama wrote an editorial.
What he postulates is that now is the greatest time to be alive – a good think piece that has got me thinking.
Of course, the present moment is an excellent time to be around given that if you were in most of the past present moments you wouldn’t be here all hale and hearty now.
But Obama wasn’t interested in those sorts of metaphysical details. He set down a coherent argument to back his hypothesis.
I could paraphrase his main statement but that wouldn’t do it justice so here is what he said.
“Here’s another thing I believe: We are far better equipped to take on the challenges we face than ever before.
“I know that might sound at odds with what we see and hear these days in the cacophony of cable news and social media.
“But the next time you’re bombarded with over-the-top claims about how our country is doomed or the world is coming apart at the seams, brush off the cynics and fear-mongers because the truth is, if you had to choose any time in the course of human history to be alive, you’d choose this one, right here in America, right now.”
“If you had to choose any time in the course of human history to be alive, you’d choose this one, right here in America, right now.”
Barack Obama
He’s right, of course, that we are swayed by the immediate news stories from unfortunate and blighted places like Aleppo, Mosul and Helmand.
Now. more than at any time in human history, we hear instantly of the ravages of war, drought, famine, weather events and earthquakes and certainly there will be someone there with a camera and a wi-fi connection showing us the results.
So, it is no wonder that at times I feel the world is going to hell in the proverbial handcart.
But Obama points out some facts that don’t tend to make it to the front pages.
He says “Just since 1983, when I finished college, things like crime rates, teen pregnancy rates, and poverty rates are all down. Life expectancy is up. The share of Americans with a college education is up too.
“Tens of millions of Americans recently gained the security of health insurance. Blacks and Latinos have risen up the ranks to lead our businesses and communities. Women are a larger part of our workforce and are earning more money.”
He goes on to say that around the world more countries are democratic, more children go to school and a smaller share of humans know chronic hunger or live in extreme poverty, among other improvements.
This he puts down to people voting for better prospects, leaders enacting smart, forward-looking policies, people’s perspectives opened up.
And the other great driver for this positive progress is science and technology. He makes a strong and good case why science has got us to this point and why, despite the challenges of now and in the future, it will be science, some of it unimaginable, that will help solve these challenges and problems.
Another great advantage of the present I reckon is that we now know more about the universe, how it ticks and our place in it.
We rely a lot less on fear, superstition and ignorance though I’m still surprised these human conditions continue to have a good following, even in these more enlightened times.
And I reflect on where we sit down here in our small piece of paradise and of the decades and times gone past and put aside my nostalgia and agree with Obama that yes, right now is indeed the greatest time to be alive.
