Like many Americans, I have spent
much of the past 18 months trying to understand what is happening in the United
States since the reins of government were turned over to Donald Trump and his
collaborators in the Republican Party.
We have gone from laughing at their gaffes, staring wide-eyed at their
lies (even as it became clear that the lies were intentional and not simply the
products of ignorance or naivete), and bowing our heads in anger and shame at
their treatment of others, whether they be fellow citizens suffering in the
wake of Puerto Rico’s hurricanes or Hispanic families seeking refuge from
turmoil in their homelands. This week’s “no
tolerance” policy that separates migrant families, putting thousands of
children into make-shift concentration camps, has marked a new low, not just
for Trump and his gang, but for our country as a whole. As we sink further into the mire of racial
hate and economic war, we need to turn away from the spectacle and look for
solutions. We need to ask what it will
take for our country to regain its honor.
While
one Gallup Poll reported this week that Trump’s popularity rose to 45%--on a
par with other presidents at this point in their first administration—CNN’s new
poll showed him at 39%, down from 41% in May.
That suggests (although we have no idea what the current humanitarian
crisis over separating children from migrant parents may do) that Trump’s
popularity with the base population that elected him is holding fast. Looking ahead, it is almost impossible to
imagine how to respond to Trump without knowing more about the underlying issues that drive his core
support and what is needed to lead us to the changes that, very obviously, are needed.
Thomas
Friedman’s 2016 book, Thank You for Being
Late, explores some dimensions of the problems that we don’t hear about on
the nightly news. Friedman describes two
kinds of change: technological and
social. Technological change evolves
rapidly, doubling its power and reach every few years. Imagine, for instance, what has happened
technologically in the two decades since the first web browser was launched in
1995 and compare that innovation with today’s cloud computing! It is difficult, Friedman notes, to capture
“the transformational nature of what has been created.” The result, he says, is “a tremendous release
of energy into the hands of human beings to compete, design, think, imagine,
connect, and collaborate with anyone anywhere” (p. 83). This same force has greatly multiplied the
power of one person to change society, but it is also amplifying what Friedman
calls “the power of many.” “Human
beings,” he reports, “as a collective are not just a part of nature; they have
become a force of nature—a force that is disturbing and changing the climate
and our planet’s ecosystems at a space and scope never before seen in human
history” (p. 87). However, Friedman also
notes that social change takes place at a much slower pace than technological
change. At some point, the speed of
technological change outpaces our ability to adapt to it, creating social disruption
and leaving some people behind as others race to catch up.
It
forces the question: Where do people
whose training and experience are with the technology and industrial models of
the older technology fit into this new world?
That is a question that is critical for people who work in mining and traditional
industrial communities around the nation. Most of these people are descended
from people who came to the United States from northern Europe in the 19th
and early 20th century. They
have been told by political opportunists that new immigrants challenge their
right to good jobs. However, the real
problem is that those jobs are no longer available to anyone. Change has created a new working environment
for everyone.
Friedman
acknowledges that gap between the pace of technological change and social
change is a cause of serious concern and anxiety, especially in the political
realm. “It is time,” he concludes, “to
redouble our efforts to close that anxiety gap with imagination and innovation
and not scare tactics and simplistic solutions that will not work” (p. 202).
Part
of the solution is a societal commitment to lifelong education that will help
all members of society to keep pace with technological change so that they can
continue to thrive in a rapidly evolving environment. We need to acknowledge that, even with a
commitment to universal K-14 education, this only prepares students to find
their skills. At the same time, we need
to acknowledge that, as Friedman notes, an undergraduate degree simply prepares
a grad for his/her first job. Education
must become a lifelong resource to help people adjust their careers to changing
circumstances and then to an active role in the community after retirement.
Beyond
that, Friedman argues that, in order to keep pace with technology-related
change, we need to innovate “in everything other than technology.” He writes:
“It is reimagining and
redesigning your society’s workplace, politics, geopolitics, ethics, and
community—in ways that will enable more citizens on more days in more ways to
keep pace with how these accelerations are reshaping their lives and generate
more stability as we shoot through these rapids” (p. 199).
At the end of the day, the issue is
not returning to a long-lost past but learning to innovate as individuals and
communities to create a new social environment that can prosper in a world in
which humans—and their technology—are a force of nature.
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