Friday, March 20, 2009

The Future

This is a topic that I've been thinking a lot about lately mostly because I have a lot of unanswered questions about my own future.

Such as, when will I be able to buy my first flying car! Teenagers are going to love those things, they combine two of their favorite things: flying and cars!

Sorry about the tangent, I plan to have a legitimate point to this post. So I'm in the middle of finishing grad school and trying to get a job in a strange job market. I've been lucky to have had some good interviews and I think we'll have a couple of options but I really don't have much of a clue of where we'll be a year from now. So I think about the future sometimes. In addition to the unknown nature of my own future I also wonder about where we'll be as a society in one, five, ten years.

I don't mean this in any type of gloom and doom way, I'm not writing this from some bunker in Northern Idaho, but I'm just acknowledging the fact that we're living in a pretty interesting time in terms of globalization, economic crisis, amazing scientific advancements, wars, information revolutions, etc., etc. There's a lot of stuff going on and there are a lot of opinions out there about what's down the road. You've got some people saying the economic crisis is about over and others like that Russian Economic Professor who's predicted the end of the United States will happen sometime in the next year or so. You've got the Chinese Premier questioning the financial security of US treasury bonds. The US govt. is racking up debt, another trillon this week, at an unprecedented rate. BYU continues to lose first round NCAA tournament games, etc., etc.

All this can seem pretty bleak but at the same time we often forget that instability is an inherent aspect of human existence. Just look at any period of human history, smooth sailing is not necessarily the status quo. I also think about the optimism of Pres. Hinkley. Elder Bednar recently said one in of the last meetings he attended with Pres. Hinkley that the prophet leaned over, patted him on the hand and said "David this is a great time to be alive."

So, I figure we have a lot of smart people who contribute to this blog, at least that's what I've been told by the people who contribute to this blog, and I was curious to hear some opinions on where you see yourself, the world, Hannah Montana's career, etc. in the next couple of years. I look forward to your wise prognostications.

4 comments:

  1. In light of my last 72 hrs*, my advice to all is
    "trust in God, maintain the faith and ALWAYS have hope!"

    *if you want details, you'll have to give me a call.

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  2. I'm the sort who longs for stability, and dislikes uncertainty, but you've said it right, in all times and places there is a certain level of uncertainty, and perhaps its that uncertainty which helps us all remain spiritually faithful and seek help beyond ourselves.

    That Russian Prof. floors me, this statement seems specifically fishy

    "Panarin argued that Americans are in moral decline, saying their great psychological stress is evident from school shootings, the size of the prison population and the number of gay men."

    Wait, wait, wait...so our country's going to fail, by 2010 mind you, because of our prison size, school shootings (since we all know there's a shooting in a school every week day) and the number of gay men? This all seems sort of opinionated, and anti-west, no?

    The best part is that Russia, who's economy is in MUCH worse shape than our own, will rise with China as the super power. This guy's trying to please Prime Minister Putin for a cushier job.

    As for the outlook for folks like us, I think that guarded optimism is a good way to go. I think being hopeful and cheerful, knowing that trails are in store, but also knowing great joy awaits all of us is a sound approach. We can't control many aspects of life, and perhaps more frugality (within reason), less debt, more thoughtful purchases and investing will reap long term benefits. It's times like these that we see wisdom in the council to purchase a MODEST home, and live within our means.

    So, to wrap up, in the words of a sage older stake missionary from my mission "Hona' ya' preisthood Elda, and the Lord will take care ov ya."

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  3. Great thoughts from both of you. I want to see Tony go head to head with the Russian prof in a debate. Maybe we could arrange a debate on the economy and the future of America with a panel made of up of the Herr Scoutmaster and Tony Hawk crews. I read a great talk by Elder Holland that's very pertinent to this topic, here's the link:

    http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=8366

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  4. Ack! I've been wanting to make a good comment on this post but haven't had time of late. We are moving into our new home tonight and are going crazy with all of that.

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