Waiting for the Next Golden Age

June 9, 2008 at 8:14 am (Los Angeles, The Life of A Spaceman) (doctorow, Golden Age, obama, the future)

Today I was meeting with some friends about the next party we want to throw. We are looking for the next big thing, asking ourselves what the future of the LA party scene will look like. Nobody knows what it will be. We keep thinking about it and coming up with no sure answers. Then Zak hit it.

“Everyone is ready for the next thing to happen. The world has been so fucked up lately, and it is clearly going to end. But until it does, they are all holding their breath until it changes.”

That’s it.  We’re exhausted and want the next age to start now.

I can only speak for myself here, but I have seen the world getting darker and more horrible at every turn for the entirety of my adult life.  This is happening every day, wars on drugs, terror and nations, political corruption, people around the world hating Americans, out of control police power, a fear mongering shill media, environmental catastrophe just on the horizon, and on, and on.

This is simultaneous with my immediate community growing at this exponential rate.  Every day, the amazing people in my world expand in number and quality.  We grow in leaps and bounds. Every time I leave my home, the people I interact with are brighter and brighter.  People have hope, they dream ready for a new world and a quantum leap forward. They are causing these leaps forward in their own lives.  It’s inspiring really. I see this emerging culture that I get to be a part of, and on a personal level we are winning!

I had this thought the other day, it was a fleeting one, but I chose to hold onto it.  Why can’t we enter a New Golden Age (or a Second Renaissance)?  Obama getting the nomination has me all psyched about what is possible. Imagine a world where we work things out in world with some integrity! I can see this whole possible reality full of scientific breakthrough, political honor, artistic exploration, ruthless acts of love and peace, freedom for everyone, environmental healing and a new economic system that could generate abundance for all. What will be our generation’s moon landing?  Is it possible that we will move out of what history will call the second dark ages? Can our age transform the failures of the past into a beautiful  future of light?

I say it’s so crazy, it just might work.

After I started picturing this new world, I found this in my RSS feed. Man, that Cory Doctorow is reading my parallel universe generator.

http://www.fugue.com/pics/goodnews.html

via boingboing at http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/08/google-news-from-a-b.html

So here is my request: Read this front page, and imagine it coming to pass. Visualize a possible reality where these stories could become true and real. Share your audacious ideas of what amazing things can alter the world to your benign will. See it. It’s coming.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.