by LJ Frank

Ideas change over time, as does the human perspective on history. Revisions to history occur and are made. Textbooks and recommended reading, viewing and listening matter are filled with revisions as more evidence-based knowledge is gained, though much remains to be explored. The challenge is not all revisions are based on fact. A nuanced agenda or action for whatever reason may inadvertently or purposefully distort the revisions.

The challenge during periods of rising populism is that history doesn’t repeat itself so much as the actions and behavior of people do. The greed for power and greater wealth are common behaviors when humans decidedly exhibit and relish strong material oriented values. While the jockeying for power and wealth increases, so are the numbers of people who are merely existing from one paycheck to another, wondering when a robot, not an immigrant, will do their work and begin questioning the value of their work, relationships and existence.

In certain formats technology allows for the dissemination of massive amounts of information, disinformation and misinformation to occur at a faster rate than the human mind may wish to contemplate. Literacy in everyday life in such times becomes progressively important for survival. One can only imagine what revolutions in the past would have looked like if technology had been more advanced at the time. A multitude of nations today have sufficient destructive technologies to cause humankind to become literally extinct and planet Earth barren of mammalian if not all animal life.

On the other hand human technologies can aid us in disallowing fear to feed into our insecurities and serve as a blessing when saving lives, improving health, finding solutions to climate change that affects food and water quality and shortages, building affordable housing, creating meaningful work with sustainable wages, enhancing equality as well as living quality and a myriad of other promising venues.

Still, the nuances of our future are ambiguous.