Possible Spillover of Fervor for Religion from USA to Canada

Brian, historians Will and Ariel Durant observed in their classic The Lessons of History that when law and order break down we see people turn to religion and ethics as a way to "push back" against abuse. This describes exactly the situation in America. The governmental system, which orchestrates the legal system, works for the vampires on Wall Street. As a result, we expect ethics to push back against abuse. I am not optimistic about the power of ethics to "right" the ship alone. In the end, raw power, government, must come into play - or we live in a dream world.

News about the Future from Toronto

Jason, look for educational technology, e.g. simulations, which are cheap and self-paced to more and more displace teachers, professors. Digital technology has the capacity now to "automate" learning and relegate teachers to the role of facilitators more and more. Teaching is what somebody does to us. Learning is what we do for ourselves; what we do for ourselves in the final analysis has more lasting impact. Call it discovery learning if you need a theory, name for it. The teacher unions here in Wisconsin are already worrying about this looming trend; higher education will also embrace the trend. We are in short looking at "teacherless" education, one of the core workshops at the 2012 World Future Society in Toronto, which your humble servant here had the good fortune to attend. 2013 is in Chicago! Closer.

Sadly, when this writer taught high school in the Province of Ontario he witnessed the collapse of discipline in the high schools there.  It is one of the reasons why he left Canada.  Canada is lucky.  It can still import disciplined talent from countries like India to drive its economy.  America has a similar need.  Sadly, Canada borrowed American educational fads instead of devising its own.  The result is to "Americanize" Canadian education - to the harm of Canada overall and its future.

Your humble servant here agrees and disagrees with you. Yes, we ought not to expect the same outcomes for all students. If they cannot do math, they can take options like woodworking. However, once they are in woodworking or math this writer sees no reason to relax standards period. Above all, a teacher has the right to expect each and every student to treat him or her with respect - at all times - as they would their boss on the job. One of the reasons we are losing competitive advantage is simple lack of discipline. We do not need more money to fix education. We need discipline, which means this is what we do here and what we expect; if you do not like it, there is the door. 

Canada, USA, Greece, and Rome

To what extent do America and Canada reflect Greek city states or the Roman Empire?  The comparison of the two countries with classical models gives us insight into their futures today.

 

Bob, ancient history provides a model, comparison. Think Greek city states. Think Roman empire. The city states were decentralized, but they formed leagues, or networks to use today's language, to meet various needs, e.g. defense and trade. In comparison, the Roman empire centralized to the point that it broke down. It was a factory model. The Internet is now making it possible to decentralized in the fashion of Greek city states - which provides flexibility and human scale, in comparison with the mammoth centralized urban sprawl of ancient Rome. The themes of history remain constant; Futurists employ such historical comparisons to help us to make better sense of trends today.

Good News from Old Friend in Canada Now

Michael, are you in Canada? If you are, bravo! Please confirm your location. Here is my take on this. John Johnson, now deceased, the guidance counselor at the high school in Wiarton, Ontario, where I taught for four years, put it this way. “90% of us will always work for somebody else, so why not make the system fair to the 90%?” In effect, the system cannot run without the 90% – regardless of the “smarts” at the top. It is an outdated industrial model in which intelligence is at the top of the factory system and the rest of the folks are just extensions of assembly line machines, dumb animals, robots, and slackers. This is breaking down in the Knowledge Economy. Political rhetoric, as you observe, has not caught up with the emerging reset, yet. John was from Sudbury, the son of Swedish immigrants who worked in the mines there. John started in the mines, and when World War II came he became a gunner in a Canadian bomber based in England. After the war, he became a teacher, then a guidance counselor. He was a great mentor to me. He was a realist. John also pointed out that the myth that all of us can make it into the top 10% of the ownership class is an opiate that keeps the exploitation going. In fact, 90% of the people who “play the game” are doomed to lose it – regardless of how many self-help and guides to success books they read.Fortunately, the Knowledge Economy in time will break down the hold this greedy 10% have on resources and allow a rest of how we live, do business; hopefully if we use this rest well, it will result in a fairer system. Fair is now my guiding concept. We need to be fair to the 90% – who do the work, obey the laws, pay the taxes, and fight the wars; for all of this their supposed “betters” exploit and abuse them. The late futurist Herman Kahn predicted that in time the 90% would wake up to the reality of the “game” and “blow it up.” As we approach institutional failure in the USA, we are moving toward Kahn’s forecast.

From: Mike Nicosia

Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2012 8:18 PM

To: Paul Rux

Subject: An AMerican in Canada ...

Romney's statements do not reflect the opinions of one man.

The entire Republican apparatus, from Fox News to Rush Limbaugh to the donors in that room to Republicans in the US House of Representatives and Senate, are imbued with this "job creators" master race versus an ocean of moochers ideology.

If there really are 40-something percent of Americans who buy this division of humanity into the innovative, industrious few besieged by a greedy, lazy many who want to "redistribute" worthwhile people's just deserts into their own pockets, then we are looking at something like a showdown in the USA.

That is why I decamped to Canada. I am fortunate in that I was a legal immigrant once and am able to petition to have my status reinstated, so I can stay while my status is sorted out..

But there are heavily armed madmen out there in the USA who are incensed by the lies, which they believe, with which the Republican Party has been pounding them on the head for 30 years.

Something has got to give.

Best would be if those 40-something percent brainwashed Americans would wake up.

Unfortunately, there are millions of them who believe exactly what Mitt Romney said, and it isn't likely they are going to change their minds.

Confederation of the Great Lakes

Robert, I am going to share this reply to your 6.2. with the rest of our course. Today, I heard the consul general of Canada in Chicago talk about the Great Lakes. He pointed out that if Ontario and the American states that adjoin the Great Lakes combined into a country, it would have the 4th largest economy in the world and the 12th largest land mass in the world! I chatted briefly with him about economic domains instead of political boundaries; he agreed with me. It may be that the old idea of a Northwest Confederation of the Great Lakes may yet come true as Americans in the heart land grow weary of Wall Street Vampires and Washington Warmongers. The Northwest Confederation was popular during the US Civil War when the Great Lakes states saw no reason to fight for Eastern banking interests against the South. One of the key causes of the US Civil War was the desire of the East to impose tariffs on the South to stop its buying stuff from British industry - in exchange for cottom. New England wanted the South to shop here, not in the UK. The consul general and I chuckled a bit about how history may yet repeat itself - maybe for the better - with the Great Lakes economic domain as a new country. We shall see! Dr. Rux

Canada - USA Comparison July 2012

My wife and I had the good fortune to attend the 2012 World Future Society Conference in Toronto at the end of July.  We spent two weeks in Ontario prior to the vent, which included visits to our favorite places like Leamington, Fergus, Elora, and Saint Jacobs.  We also overnighted in Windsor, Guelph, and of course downtown Toronto.  In short, we had a chance to sample public feeling.

Compared with the USA today, where Americans are anxious because they know "the wheels are coming off" the system, the Canadians in Ontario with whom we interacted were calm, optimistic, in comparison with their American cousins.  For example, Toyota planned to open 400 new jobs in it Woodstock, Ontario plant.  Overall, we heard good news about Canada in Canada.  It was a stark contrast with the doom, gloom, and foreboding about the future we left behind in Wisconsin.

The gang shootings in Toronto, of course, jarred with the overall calm of the Canadians with whom we interacted.  It was frankly a reflief to be away from the dread of impending doom in America that we left behind when we cross the Ambassador Bridge into Canada at Windsor.  In fact, it was hard to come back to the depression that Americans rightly have about their country.  They do not deserve what has happened to them; they know it.  Canada is a vibrant reminder that countries do not have to cater to economic terrorists, engage in overseas wars for oil profits, and go without healthcare for all.

The Canadians whom we met were not aware of the difference in social psychology between them and their American cousins.  My wife and I became aware; we thank Canada for its example.  Americans need to look North to their Canadian counsins for lessons on how to nurture healthy systems - and not suffer economic and political terrorism.