Knowing the future

Submitted by J.S. Brice (Germany), Jan 27, 2004 at 16:27

This is a difficult topic to be objective about. It would be very hard to know exactly what is going to happen in the future, as the social context and cultural values that shape the future are constantly changing.

There may be many advantages and opportunities in the changing demographics. And current rates of growth are probably not going to continue indefinitely. After all, European birth rates were also very high a few centuries ago.

And it was European civilization that brought forth imperialism, modern racism, colonialism and the Holocaust, many genocides and wars of conquest and climate change. So one should not be too Eurocentric.

I do think that slower rates of change are better, as they allow more time to adjust to change. But one cannot choose the way history develops.

I find the article thought-provoking and full of interesting points of view.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".