It’s Gonna Be Ok

 

–

Ah, the future!  That blissful paradise, free of disease, of war, of scarcity! A far-flung world where all mankind may live in peace and harmony.  An end to the raping of nature, the rampages of disease, and all the pangs and wants that flesh is heir to, to misquote the Bard.

Like this, but with trees.

Of course, such a future is not promised us.  We’ll have to work for it. And considering the issues of our current age, it seems we have our work cut out for us.  It’s 2011, and we still have all sorts of problems.  Thankfully,  there are at least four things I expect to get better by the end of this century.

1. Peaceful Resolution to the Arab-Israeli Conflict!

You heard me. And why not? Why should the Jews and Palestinians keep up this fighting another sixty years? Who’s to say a charismatic leader will not rise from the desert, preaching peaceful coexistence?

Like this. Only probably of eastern European descent.

And for the Arabs? Surely they can’t go on fighting the Jews forever? With so much blood in those sands, I have no doubt we’ll see someone from their side call for peace as well.

"We declare our right on Earth to tolerate each other's presences!"

2. Science Marches On!

By 2100, we won’t be talking about abortion or end-of-life issues. As medical science advances, the idea that women used to terminate unwanted pregnancies will seem silly.  Abortion will be a medical footnote, thought of as a relic of a more barbaric past.

Keep in mind, I’m not talking about over-turning Roe v. Wade. I’m talking about abortion becoming medically unnecessary.  After all, just a few hundred years ago, blood-letting was considered a prime way to cure illness. Now we have pharmaceuticals, reliable anesthetics, and surgery performed by people who actually wash their hands.

If a woman in the year 2100 becomes pregnant and does not feel capable of bringing the pregnancy to term (for whatever reason), there will be all sorts of techniques and procedures available to her, none of which would harm the unborn.  I’m talking about fetal transplant, fetal teleportation, fetal extraction for stem cell research (hey, not all of these methods are going to be 100% Church-sanctioned).

Asking for an abortion in 2100 would get you the same reaction as asking your family doctor to measure your “humours.”

3. Freedom Shall Spread!

Whether we’re talking about the Arab Spring, healthcare access, or the fact that urinating on a picture of the Queen of England will no longer get you beheaded, there is no doubt that freedom and democracy are spreading worldwide.

The best proof I can offer for the irresistible nature of freedom is David Icke.

David Icke is a best-selling author. He writes books about how the world is secretly run by shape-shifting lizard-people from the center of the Earth.

The mere fact that Icke is able to express his opinion in the public square without fear of lynching, secret police, or public execution is something I believe we should all be thankful for.

David Icke: Defending freedom of speech since 1990. Certifiably-insane since frick-all.

Of course, most of the world’s population does not enjoy this supreme gift.  But as we’ve seen with the Arab Spring, the revolutions of Latin America, and the ongoing attempts to make an African nation “work,” the pull of freedom is inexhaustible.

Now, it may take longer in some places. And of course, there will be the occasional backslide into despotism. But, history has shown that humans cannot be kept as slaves indefinitely.

4. Space!

The final frontier. This one’s more of a Hail Mary (the prayer, not the football thing). Space is so big and beautiful. It’d be a shame not to put another couple of dudes up there. Maybe some chicks too. Whether we’re talking the moon, Mars, near-Earth asteroids, or we just gotta go investigate some mysterious box orbiting Jupiter, the stars are our future!

…unless, of course, they’re our past.

While China’s space program will probably be a nationalized endeavor, America and Europe will most likely depend on wealthy (read: bored) businessmen willing to invest billions to carve their initials on the Sea of Tranquility.

Then again...

Granted, the world of 2100 won’t be perfect (no world is). And although the problems listed above will fade into the past, we will undoubtedly have new ones. Then those will go away too.  It’s called history. And it’s the source of all my boundless carefully-restricted optimism.