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European society, also known as Western Civilization, dominates Europe, North and South America, and Australia, and European cultures maintain military, technological and economic dominance over Africa and much of Asia and the Pacific. Even China, the "Asian powerhouse", relies on science, technology, and other cultural paradigms developed in Europe and the U.S. But as noted above, the conventional priorities and behaviors of dominant societies, including those of our peer groups and subcultures, are failing. This is what we'll be investigating in the following pages: both what we say and what we do. |
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Roles & Priorities We Acknowledge in Public Discourse
In our society, each of us is part of a peer group or subculture sharing particular priorities or values. Most of us play different roles in different activities, and change roles as we age, for example from children to young adults, to parents, and eventually to retirees.
Politically, we may consider ourselves liberals or conservatives. Religion may also define us, as does our career.
Finally, we all share fundamental concerns such as health and happiness.
Behaviors We Demonstrate
For each role we play in society, we adopt behaviors that are accepted by our peer group in our attempt to achieve our priorities, for example: following the news and voting for candidates who share our political priorities, or buying on credit to achieve our lifestyle priorities.
Challenges & Failures We Acknowledge in Public Discourse
However, we are all aware of uncountable challenges, some of them very serious, facing some of us as individuals and all of us as a society. These problems indicate that the conventional priorities and behaviors of our society, including those of our peer groups and subcultures, are failing.
This is what we'll be investigating in the following pages. |
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Parents
Liberals
Christian Conservatives
Scientists & Environmentalists
Young Professionals
Technologists
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Role |
Priorities
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Behaviors
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Challenges
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Parents
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Individual:
Family:
- Infant survival
- Kids' health & success
- Supportive relationship
- Comfortable home & secure neighborhood
- Secure retirement
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Parents' career: ambition, competition, commuting, working overtime, 2 incomes, mobility
Kids' education: private or charter school, college
Family lifestyle: consumerism, consumption & credit
Parents' retirement: savings & investments
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Parents' careers: stress, rootlessness & estrangement
Kids' care & education: high cost, debt, academic competition & failure, bullying & school violence, health issues
Parents' retirement: isolation & loss of autonomy & dignity in retirement communities & nursing homes
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Role |
Priorities
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Behaviors
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Challenges
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Liberals
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Society:
- Democratic government
- Liberal education
- Equal & adequate healthcare
- Economic equality
- Social justice
- Tolerance
- Peace
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Liberal education
Voting for reform
Political activism for reform
Legislation, e.g. gun control |
Extreme inequality
Wealth-based political power
Poverty & homelessness
Capital punishment
Healthcare inequality
Dysfunctional communities
Political corruption & failures
Racism & intolerance
Conservatism
Superstition
Slavery & oppression
Military-Industrial complex, proliferation & stockpiles of conventional, nuclear, chemical & biological weapons of mass destruction |
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Role |
Priorities
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Behaviors
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Challenges
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Christian
Conservatives
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Individual:
Family:
Society:
- Free enterprise
- Traditional values & morality
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Conservative education
Voting
Political activism
Church attendance, prayer & faith
Self-defense & survivalism |
Big government
Dysfunctional communities
Political corruption & failures
Immigration
Gun control
Liberalism
Secularism
Sin & immorality: Abortion, Gay Marriage, Pedophilia |
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Role |
Priorities
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Behaviors
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Challenges
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Scientists
& Environmentalists
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Society:
- Science & reason
- Healthy human environments
Nature:
- Data (never enough)
- Healthy natural habitats
- Biological & ecological diversity
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Technological innovation
Exploration
Research & hypothesizing
Education
Political activism
Conservation & restoration
Buying and using "sustainable" technologies
Buying organic, buying local, urban farming, etc.
Recycling |
Insufficient funding
Climate change
Mass extinctions
Habitat loss
Loss of biological diversity
Political corruption & failures
New technologies with unknown long-term effects
Nuclear waste & stockpiles of conventional, nuclear, chemical & biological weapons of mass destruction |
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Role |
Priorities
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Behaviors
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Challenges
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Young Professionals |
Individual:
- Maximum income
- Rewarding career
- Fashion
- Fun & adventure
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Work hard
Ambition & competition
Consumerism, consumption & credit
Play hard |
Debt & student loans
Economic instability: bubbles, recessions, inflation |
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Priorities
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Behaviors
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Challenges
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Technologists |
Individual:
- Challenging problems
- Profit
Society:
- Power over nature, convenience, mobility, speed, productivity & efficiency
- Human comfort
- Human health, safety, infant survival & longevity
- Domination of other humans
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Tech innovation (Mobile apps, Google X, robotics, life extension, space travel, etc.)
Hard work
Competition
Tech education |
Talent competition
Market competition
Market volatility & capital availability
Technological competition, failure & obsolescence
Privacy issues
Social & political backlash, regulation |
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Role |
Priorities
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Behaviors
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Challenges
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All
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Individual:
- Comfort & convenience
- Happiness
- Pleasure
- Personal freedom
- Wealth & financial security
- Health
- Safety
- Companionship
- Sex
- Longevity
Society:
- Economic growth
- Political stability & domestic security
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Work
Competition
Consumerism, consumption & credit
Video games, sports media & entertainment media
Health insurance
Investment
Smart phones, mobile apps, social media, traditional media, news media
Voting & political activism
Medical research
Technological innovation
Legal system
Coercive enforcement of law & order: police, military
Justice: trials, retribution & punishment, separation & confinement (prisons)
Revolution |
Stress disorders, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorders, depression, deteriorating health & fitness, diabetes, immune disorders, obesity, cancer, heart disease
Resistant bugs, global epidemics
Drug addiction, drug trafficking, war on drugs
High cost of healthcare
Struggling middle class
Cost of living, gas prices, inflation
Economic instability: bubbles, recessions, inflation
Loss of privacy, identity theft, government secrecy & lies
National debt, crumbling infrastructure
Polarizing media
Ongoing pollution & environmental disasters, including nuclear accidents
Climate change & natural disasters (drought, wildfire, flood, earthquake, tsunami)
Depletion of natural resources (fossil fuels, water, etc.)
Terrorism & mass killings
Invasion, civil war, war, failed states |
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