As the 21st century demands new realities, people fighting for the last century rely more and more on beliefs and feelings, unsubstantiated by any evidence.
Here was an interesting episode from a courtroom last month. The judge asked the lawyer opposing gay marriage, What would be the harm of permitting gay men and lesbians to marry? The attorney, having studied the matter deeply, replied, "Your honor, my answer is: I don't know. I don't know."
As we approach the turning point year of 2010 some will fess up they don't know, but others will continue to believe in things that do not exist. Believing in last century reality will lead to a belief in conspiracies, and ultimately to something kind of bizarre. This happened 100 years ago when two girls maintained they had seen fairies, and all of England, including Sr. Conan Doyle, believed them. We are going to predict that sometime in the next ten years Fox News actually reports on sightings of angels. What do you think?
I think there will be people who rely on beliefs like "there's no way people will give up their cars for trains" or "it isn't possible to manage workers who telecommute" (both of which there is evidence to the contrary but people never believe me when I tell them.
However, I think there will be more of a return to sprituality and religion as our religious institutions become more tolerant. It will be acceptable to believe in angels AND gay marriage.
Posted by: Suzanne | November 02, 2009 at 07:57 PM