The Image of the Future (con.)
The future of our society is
dependent on our hopes, expectations and images of it. I do not mean the
long-term future years or even decades ahead, but tomorrow, the short-term
future only days, weeks or, at the most, months from now. We can increase
the possibility of a more positive future by developing and nurturing
positive visions and images of it. F. L. Polak in his book, Images of
the Future, said, "Human society and culture are being
magnetically pulled towards a future fulfillment of their own idealistic
images of the future, as well as being pushed from behind by their own
realistic past." Our thoughts and beliefs of what the future will be
like can move us toward that future and help to create and affect the
present.
While a strong, positive vision of the future does lead to confidence, I'm
not talking only about a confidence in the future. Confidence is a
reaction to a belief about the coming short-term future, next month or
next year. No, what I'm talking about is a people's response to a vision
of what the future can be. A image of a future that is as far reaching and
challenging as any of the great visions of the past, the type of vision
that moves a society and the people within it. When the people begin to
believe a vision of this magnitude everything is changed and the world is
never the same again.
O. W. Markley of the Stanford Research Institute said, "The
development of our societies has been in large part dependent on the
creative vision of the great members of the human race, and of the images
of the future of the important cultures throughout history." Malachi
Martin, a Jesuit priest and student of why societies succeed or fail, in
his book The New Castle said, "The greatest heights of culture and
civilization were always fashioned, not within the molds of sociological
cause and effect, but within a transcendent vision." Finally, the
late Ed Lindaman, a past director of program planning for the design and
manufacture of the Apollo Spacecraft and President of Whitworth College in
Spokane, Washington said, "The believer not only interprets history
but, above all, he changes it, because he believes, because he
hopes."
Malachi Martin too believes in the power of the image of the future. In
his book he speaks of the image of the future as a vision of the
"Castle." Different people and different societies throughout
history have experienced this vision of the future, of a better world, a
world where anything and everything was possible. The Castle was their
vision of that ideal state.
For example, there was an obscure Semite nomad, named Abraham, who was the
first witness of the Jewish vision and the patriarch of all the major
religions of the western world. The power of his vision has lasted for
over 5000 years.
How many of you have seen the desert around Salt Lake City, Utah? I don't
know how you feel, but I have never seen one more desolate. The legends
say there were only seven trees in that whole valley when Brigham Young
chose it as the site for the Mormon community. They had no money and very
little material goods. Most of them didn't even have horses. But they did
have a vision, a vision of a city by the shores of the Great Salt Lake.
Only seven years after the first person stepped foot in that area, the
foundation to the temple was being laid; and today we have Salt Lake City,
Utah, a thriving, green and well planned city, a jewel in the desert.
There have been many visions that have shaped the history and future of
our world including the "American dream" that is just slightly
over 200 years old. Each of these cultures was/is being driven by a
vision, a vision that began with a few people and spread throughout the
society, shaping the future and transforming the present.
I feared the future, feared my children's world,
Feared the outcome of the massive changes taking
place in our country.
My imagination ran wild and I had visions of the
breakdown or society,
millions dead and dying,
cities empty and decaying,
our way of life gone for centuries.
The future, for me, a steamroller
rushing madly downhill,
no one at the controls.
Doubt and fear of things to come.
Forward into the unknown.
Hope beckons.
THE END
Copyright 1998,
Brad
Fregger. All rights reserved. Page
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