A Sea of Change

Call me old-fashioned, but I still embrace the idea of progress. It is self-evident that the world is changing. The problem is that nowadays, people tend to be cynical; few people seem to believe the world could also be progressing? This time, I’m no longer writing about material progress, like more mobile phones or faster internet. This may be important, but I’m now writing about human progress. For me human progress is the deliberation of some sort of evil or the construction of something better, with reasonable hope that the change is fundamental, robust and lasting. I’m looking for something that makes us happy or least, something that gives us hope humanity is on the right track.

I’m 52,5 years old now and I have been witness of some real changes:

1.  I remember I was at the age of 11 and the teacher asked us to make a presentation about communism, capitalism and the nuclear arms race. The fall of the Iron Curtain 13 years later was real progress in Europe. We didn’t need to fear for a nuclear war anymore and freedom did its entrance in Eastern Europe.
2.  When I was a child, every good family party ended under a thick layer of cigar and cigarette smoke. We could not imagine anything else. Our social habits have changed since. One may regret the loss of a certain ‘atmosphere’, but everybody will agree we evolved to a healthier way of celebrating Christmas.
3.  When I was a child, the rivers were open sewers, full of dirt, and you could smell it. Now, there is again fish in the rivers. We now have water purification stations between our sewers and the rivers.
4.  When I was a child, South-Europe was still considered to be poor. The countries had regular currency devaluations and you always had to get rid in time from Liras, Drachmas and Pesetas because 5 years later, you had to add a 0 at the right of all prices. Italy, Spain and Greece may still have economic problems, but today we would no longer consider the population as 'poor'. In South Italy, the Mafia is losing its grip on society and there is justified hope that the Mafia will disappear to the history books of feodality.
5.  One of the most remarkable changes in the last decade is the increased transparency. You may argue the contrary is true. But look at all recent revelations of manager salaries and paradise papers. It is becoming increasingly difficult to hide money. Thanks to better computer interconnections, public authorities are starting to exchange information. You may regret this, but I’m convinced this will lead someday to a fairer world.

So you see there is a Sea of Real Change rolling over us. You may argue it is going completely wrong with other things, like the heating of the atmosphere, but I haven’t lost hope yet we can solve this too, if we manage to -really- want it, hopefully when it is not too late.

Other blogs about change were: “Future Shock”, “Globalisation” and “Beschleunigung”.