No other century has been so radical on perspectives and forecasts dealing with an ever growing uncertainty and historical mischance like the 21st. Following shocking events in the late 20th century, including atomic bomb detonations over Europe, deadly viral epidemics (HIV, Ebola plus many, many others), terrorism and environmental war, all made in USA, opposed to the otherwise extremely popular pattern of American culture and civilization, one forecast seems to be right in the end: things are bound to change. Globally, that is. It's not going to be a smooth but a radical change, ultimately linked to a public awakening phenomenon that will most probably define the entire 21st century.
The actual equation of the world is far more complex than the political and economical schemes proposed or enacted: one superpower claiming a de facto world-leader position, no stable market, global demographic excess, and, the most terrifying of all, an ever more uncertain perspective at individual levels. Whatever social machination of classical or modern descent might be considered, none managed to prove adjustable enough to keep pace with the human machina - even "democracy and freedom" societies, despite media propaganda, are disintegrating at an alarming speed. With huge issues at stake, such as political and economical power, the need for social domination devices has moved throughout the past century to Orwellian experiments that seemed to work perfectly, addressing mind control with educational brain-washing/head-stuffing and, the most successful of all, media induced double-talk and double-think propaganda. One such societal type, still acting and currently mistaken for the best, and therefore copied extensively, is USA. It won't be much longer though, the dawn of religion, capitalism and democracy in the highly acclaimed New American Century has an uncontrollable alternative: the 21st century individual.
Are you, by any chance, going global?
If the answer is yes, you are completely out of touch with everything. If the answer is no, well, you're facing the first global nervous breakdown in history. Turning to a serious tone, globalization is nothing but a catastrophic trap. Intended as a "we can all get along" philosophy for "a better and safer" world following the epidemic cross-Atlantic pattern, the expected outcome is somewhat different, up to the point where all countries lose identity, except the US, naturally, and everything American comes first. However generous the offer, Italian food, French movies, Chinese craft or German beer may never be anything but second hand options. Addressing global culture, it's quite strange to see the Old Continent losing to the New Continent; rephrasing, culture losing to kitsch. The final target of globalization is to make us all citizens of the world - let this be the news of the day! To tell the entire story, the world would look like this: American citizens and the rest.
This scenario is closer to accomplishment than imaginable. Take Halloween for example: it is celebrated all over the world, subrogating similar traditions where they exist. Consider the "American values" illusion being implemented gradually, not to mention American music, art or style. Up to some point this might just seem an innocent option, obviously the best one. In fact, this is a ridiculous attempt to build some sort of legitimacy using media induced brain-stuffing. The reality of shattered family values, the fact that the US have the largest crime rates if compared to the rest of the world, the consecrated poverty that 90% of Americans experience, not to mention the complete lack of perspectives at individual levels, whether professional or personal, a chauvinistic society devoured by severe discrimination, street violence, an overall pathetic educational background and general unawareness are not issues to be popularized. The constantly submissive media globally promotes instrumentalist types of truths that best serve American interests, thing seen with non-American media broadcasts in the past decades as well, especially if that means mass disinformation or manipulation. It's no wonder that "the old American hero" has become the positive character no matter the situation, establishing a pattern for media networks everywhere. A unified global media network would actually function the same way, subduing to unquestioned obedience a perfectly Orwellian society of docile brain-stuffed imbeciles.
Setting aside ideological and conspiracy doctrines, there is a huge pile of problems the 21st century will eventually have to deal with. Globalization allowed high migration rates, fueled by the ever popular "pursuit of happiness", and most surely the numbers are growing. This was supposed to smooth cultural exchange and homogenization, but it brought along acculturation, followed by social isolation. The phenomenon has a deeply negative impact on social order in most European civilizations: it is estimated that in 20 years France will become semi-Muslim; Great Britain and Germany are faced with similar alterations. The US presently have a tight controlling system regarding immigration, but the problem still exists - even if their diverse societal profile can hardly be called civilization, it has never counted for a really valid historical pattern. Europe devised integration programs obliging immigrants to accept their new home rules and advising locals to accept diversity as means of political correctness. The effects were immediately seen: nationalistic inflation and civil tensions. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way this masquerade will result not in peaceful cohabitation but in global social disaster.
Earth population growth is by far the most important issue in sight. As the possibility of relocation elsewhere became clearly distant decades ago, efforts were made to control the process. Fabricating killer viruses was the most embraced idea. No need to play clueless: Ebola or HIV didn't appear out of the blue, but out of genetic US laboratories. The same apparently irresponsible creativity generated victims using manmade environment catastrophes. However, the effects were non-significant. This problem issues others, such as resource management and economic perspectives. Having assumed a world leader role, the US have thus far proven not all preoccupied with managing resources which are extremely limited, no plan whatsoever was included in the Pax Americana strategies to prevent or eradicate hunger and poverty. The only thing on the American governmental agenda is getting control over resources at global scale, and the process goes on although the US presently have over 60% of the world's wealth in their hands, according to official reports. As far as economic perspectives are concerned, global capitalism is a promise never to be kept. We are currently experiencing the dawn of capitalism, the American economic strategies are inevitably bound to generate a massive depression. Though the world's richest country, USA keeps its population at the very brink of poverty and unemployment, destabilizing not only their market but the global economy as well. The lack of stability seen in European economies follows the exact principles of concentrating capital in strictly limited areas.
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The day is not that far off when radical new concepts will have to replace the actual economical failure, concepts that are yet to be issued as there is officially no alternative to American capitalism.
Another key problem is global pollution. Climate changes over the past century have turned from isolated to global phenomena. To worsen things even further, every decade a new country conducts series of tests for nuclear weapons. If you add up all the nuclear tests conducted outside the US and multiple by 100 you get the exact annual number of American atomic detonations. Despite countless warnings on the effects, nothing much is done practically to end climate alterations. Considering the way things are going at the moment, it is estimated that by 2080 earth will become unbearable. Food technologies have been proposed both to eliminate pollution risks and to deal with quantity and cost. Again, the American concentrated product industry grew to epidemic proportions following World War II. In 1999, US government officials finally admitted that two thirds of Americans have metabolic disorders and more than half are obese. The nowadays high morbidity and mortality rates in a globally aging population are a serious challenge for health systems everywhere faced with inefficiency and huge costs.
Toward a New World Order
Strictly on ideological grounds, the 21st century was supposed to align everyone to the American principles of market economy, democracy and freedom, the only form of organizational machination validated by history. It's the Hegelian derived perspective of reaching a global and final stage in human societal evolution (the socially advanced Terran society) rephrased by Fukuyama as "the end of history". This lovely scenario has nothing wrong [it's nothing wrong with this scenario], really, except the utopia. Toward the end of the 20th century, Western countries were facing a gradual decrease in electoral expression, a situation which imposed electoral law alterations: the 51% majority was replaced by the largest percent of votes. What's really happening is that people no longer feel represented by their democratic systems. To be quite frank, democracy is only half of the truth. Candidates everywhere are merely mouth-pieces with more apparent low intellectual views supported by powerful interest groups, having expensive head-stuffing campaigns organized to manipulate as best as possible the democratic vote. Going to the US democratic tradition that often complements itself as the best, the 2004 elections, though participation rates were under expectations, confirmed once again the fraud conducted 4 years earlier. However, the large number of votes expressed for president Bush came as clear evidence this Orwellian society is so self-enclosed and brain-stuffed via TV or other media that reality stands no chance at all. This fueled another unexpected reaction on the opposite side of the Atlantic: Western Europeans' anti-American feeling which caused for an official withdrawal of troops and support initially provided for the Iraq invasion, doubled by the terrorist attack in Madrid not instrumented like the September 11th or the Pearl Harbor incidents. Another mark on democracies is the intrinsic corruption having badly damaged the image of many otherwise prominent leaders in the public eye. Freedom is a pretty delicate subject too. Turning to USA again, 9.11 Fahrenheit and other similar productions were met with denial and contempt stating that censorship is fully functional - and not in the US alone, but in Europe as well, affirming the unmistakably manipulating pseudo-democracies' allegiance to the imperial center.
While the dawn of nowadays democracy keeps shaking, two ideological trends are being issued: participatory democracy and (mis)information mediated mind control. A participatory system shaping up "a first people's century" is hard to consider functional especially with the uncontrollable demographic excess. Though morally unacceptable, the last option is the only fully documented and experienced thus far. The ironically titled Free World Federation project, as preposterous as it might sound, is the great cross-Atlantic elite's plan for the future new world order: expanding the Orwellian societal prototype to the entire planet. Weishaupt's new world order concept has been around for some time, and constituted the basis for Imperial America's New American Century doctrine. In effect, such a plan is quite operational and it's been like this for decades: the World Trade Organization, UNO, the World Bank and IMF, NATO are basically obedient and manipulative tools in Washington's hands as seen in many, many occasions thus far. Benefiting from Europe's two world war crisis, USA managed to impose itself as the greatest military superpower by conducting the largest scale civilian murders in history at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Unbothered, it continued an endless row of aggressions on and interventions in foreign countries in the name of "fighting communism" or "fighting terrorism", using James Monroe's 1823 "freedom and democracy" facade doctrine to ultimately colonize and enslave. European authorities had nothing to object, but support and render legitimacy.
As depicted in few social analyses such as W. Bello's or R. Gwyn's, American imperialism has reached its dawn, so there will be no American Century. How will the American Empire fall? This is a land of sheer supposition. As Europe is slowly coming to its senses, European populations have already begun to awaken and address the ever manifesting American destiny with clear rejection. Similar actions were seen in the US as well, but hardly count for anything. The American educational system provides sufficient paradoxical features: although the most aggressive and barbaric people in history, descending from Europe's convicted criminals and low-lives responsible for mankind's largest mass genocide in exterminating hundreds of millions of North American natives, Americans are consistently head-stuffed to feel proud of their past. The US have never considered developing some form of intelligentsia - this might be quite dangerous, it was the Russian intelligentsia who ensured the Soviet Empire's collapse. To conclude, there is little hope that anything might happen from the inside. Most probably Europe will eventually overthrow the American hegemony and address the global problems the world is currently facing.
America's fall will be one highlight of the 21st century. Though not so obviously admitted, the current ideological crisis unable to provide valid political and economical alternatives to democracy and capitalism hangs on the individual. If the 21st century might be a people's century in a world of nations, the 22nd century will surely promote a world of individuals. The dawn of homo religious has been long expecting a new philosophy to awaken men to their intrinsic potential and stress them out of the herd's dominion - this will be the second important moment of the 21st century. Only in a world of individuals one could dare conceive an advanced and coherent form of societal organization that poses no threats to itself whatsoever.
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