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Well, it seems to me that everything is going downhill and that we are on the verge of some major catastrophe.
Why?
a) The USA is rapidly losing liberties. Furthermore, it is losing its social identity. To be honest, the whole thing seems like a repeat of Rome. b) All these new technologies are being researched and many of them are really scary. Do I want cameras watching me 24/7? c) Antibiotic abuse is creating worse and worse diseases. Only a matter of time for some major epidemic.
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The end of civilization has been predicted for every single generation for hundreds of years. So far, they've all been wrong. Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I don't think you are. The erosion of liberties is something to be concerned about, especially when they talk about fighting for freedom. Ironic. Just do your part. Vote Protest Shape the country.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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We are being stripped of our liberties, it's true. The 4th amendment is becoming more and more of a joke, both due to things like the Patriot Act and other legislation, and due to advances in technology that create loopholes. The "free speech zone" phenomenon is another one that I find troubling--I can't see how anyone serious about defending the right to assembly can think that this could possibly be constitutional. I find this fairly troubling. However, there have been periods before when we have been striped of our rights in practice--think of the McCarthy hearings, for example, or the treatment of Japanese Americans during WWII. I don't think that it's unreasonable to think that it's possible, or even likely, for the country to recover from the abuses currently being heaped on the constitution.
It's also true that we are constantly researching new technologies, and that some of those being developed now and in the recent past have a frightening destructive potential. I expect that we'll see some fairly horrific uses of these new technologies in the coming decades, but we'll also see good, even vital ones as well. In many cases, technologically created problems will be solved by technologically created solutions. For example, genetic engineering will almost certainly make it possible for small, committed groups with relatively modest resources to create some fairly horrific bio-weapons. By the same token, though, developments in genetic engineering mean that governments will be more capable of facing and containing such a threat than they would otherwise be. I suspect that it will balance itself out.
As for the coming plague, that's one thing I'm really not concerned about at all. It's true that antibiotic abuse is creating disease resistant strains of bacteria that will soon be able to defeat any of the tools currently in our arsenal agaist them, but we're fast developing alternative ways of dealing with these superbugs. I read an article recently (probably in Newscientist, but I'm not positive) about a genetically engineered antibiotic that was capable of knocking out drug resistant bacteria. Novel approaches are being developed that bacteria will be unable to evolve a defense against (again, I've read a number of articles on the subject, many of them in NewScientist, but I don't have any particular links for you. Searching through the New Scientist archives should turn them up if you're motivated to go and dig). In addition, the West has resumed the development of bacteriophage viruses, a promising approach to fighting bacterial infection that was largely abandoned in the West following the discovery of antibiotics, but which the Soviets continued to develop. The Soviets' body of work in this field, combined with our emerging skill in genetic engineering, will, I think, prove quite effective in defeating the superbugs.
That isn't to say that we're about to enter into some kind of golden age where disease will be a thing of the past. There will undoubtedly be new diseases that will strain our abilities. Prion caused diseases leap to mind, but I expect that there will be/are others as well. It'll be an ongoing struggle, as always.
The things that concern me most are the ceding of power by our government to corporations (I had a thread about his recently that basically went nowhere), and environmental issues, but even with these, it isn't too late to turn things around, if we're sufficiently motivated.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:We are being stripped of our liberties, it's true. The 4th amendment is becoming more and more of a joke, both due to things like the Patriot Act and other legislation, and due to advances in technology that create loopholes.
From a historical perspective, our liberties are increasing. Remember, most 4th amendment liberties had no formal protection from state government until Map v. Ohio in what, 1955? Couple with Miranda and Gideon v. Wainwright, and most 4th amendment liberties have existed in a meaningful way for less than half a century. And most of them are still going strong - I saw enough evidence thrown out this summer to see that.
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