Quote:
Originally Posted by wdfifteen
We may see a new world order by then. I don't expect the US to be the dominant economic power by then. We may not even be the dominant military power. Our leaders are too focused on themselves and seem unwilling to address the real economic and social problems we have. It is possible there is a parallel between the US and Rome (arrogant leaders who were too focused on themselves to manage the empire) and also the European monarchies of 12-18th centuries (again, arrogant leaders who were too focused on themselves to manage their kingdoms). Our populace is more focused on entertainment than attainment and if that doesn't change we will be overrun, either by eastern economic powers or mid-eastern religious zealots. I don't think our current course will keep us strong enough to resist them for 100 years.
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Unfortunately, this may be a fairly likely scenario. I can also visualize a population more easily manipulated thanks to the overwhelming influence of social media and nearly universal addiction to devices like the smart phone. We already have cases of people calling 911 when Facebook goes down momentarily! In the future, people's virtual lives will become more important than their real lives. The only reason that they'll actually go out into the world to do something is so they can post photos and brag about it to their ten thousand virtual 'friends'. If the powers-that-be can ever figure out how to exert influence over social media, it'll be a dark time for future generations. Overall control or dominance of social media isn't even necessary...just a subtle spin in one direction or another would be enough to change the way people think about certain things. Just imagine thousands, or even millions, of automated virtual 'bloggers' all pumping out the same subtle point of view cleverly disguised as 'entertainment' or 'news'. This influence will be poured directly into the minds of billions of people in real time thanks to their need to constantly access the virtual world. Eighty years ago, the Nazis were able to brainwash nearly an entire country's population by, among other things, manipulating the media. Just think of how much more widespread their influence would've been if they'd had social media to use as a propaganda tool.
The world of
'1984' is fast approaching...only it's about forty years later than predicted.