Living In Dystopia

 FIFTY YEARS AGO, when I was fifteen and foolishly fond of science fiction rather than schoolwork, I would have predicted that by the year twenty twenty hunger, disease, war, poverty, all would have been eradicated, and that humanity would be universally prosperous and health and happy, and that I would have a choice between living on the moon, mars, in Earth orbit, or beneath the ocean on its floor, in what would come to be called "a bubble". I never imagined nor thought about climate change, and in the nineteen sixties neither did anybody else, save for a few percipient scientists, even though climate change had been predicted two hundred years ago by a very percipient scientist. My teenaged optimism was unbounded. That, notwithstanding my unpopular awareness in 1970 that the Viet Nam War was a hopeless exercise in American corporate sponsored foreign imperialism adventurism, the useless projection of American military power in foreign soil. Now I note how well my optimism played out, in our twenty twenty world of dystopian misery. Chemical or biological warfare, viral pandemic, nuclear holocaust, asteroid collision are but several of possible life ending scenarios. I grew up resting optimistically assured that these great calamities would never befall humanity, that they were only the stuff of speculative, entertaining science fiction. An now, here we are, with a global pandemic, and still confronted with the fact that nuclear was is a distinct possibility for the near future, due to international competition for scarce resources, land, water, minerals among them. Large asteroids whiz by Earth fairly closely quite often, and still we have no comprehensive network for detecting them early. Biological warfare becomes an increasing possibility as more powerful chemical agents are synthesized; all of the above risks are enhanced in our world, which can only be described as partly dystopic. Our only recourse is optimism, belief in ourselves, in our capacity to solve problems and survive, and international cooperation.This is why policies as removing the Unites States from international agreements such as the Iranian nuclear arms limitations treaty and the Paris climate change accords, and fomenting trade wars with  potential economic partners such as China is a tragic mistake. America first need not mean America alone. Now is the time to change course, to reverse our policies, to seek new, more enlightened leadership, and to create an era of "America together" with humanity, and with itself.