This BBC story from the 1960s shows a classic social dynamic: The ones who question, ignore, or don’t fit the social norms are ridiculed, discriminated against, and pushed out. After some years or decades, some of what was marginalized become the new norm.
WHAT’S ODD TODAY AND MAINSTREAM TOMORROW?
So the question is: What falls into this category today? What is outside the norm today and will be included in the future?
The first part of that question is easily answered, although it depends on the society and culture, and we cannot know anything for certain about the future.
SOME GUESSES
Still, here are some guesses – and maybe hopes:
Eating mostly vegan or vegetarian. As I see it, this is the obvious way of life for two reasons. It seems inevitable that we will acknowledge the sentience – the rich inner life – of non-human beings more in the future. For a long time, we have pretended they somehow don’t feel as much as we do or don’t have thought processes as we do, and that cannot be upheld much longer. There is too much science and too much experience that shows us something else. (Using buttons to help non-humans to talk reveals some of their rich inner life.) Also, producing meat is hugely inefficient. There is a big loss in converting plants to meat and then eating it. It makes far more sense to eat what they eat which is plants. In most places in the world, meat is still the default in family dinners and restaurants, and the ones who eat plant-based food are seen as a bit weird and difficult.
Living a life that has a reduced ecological footprint. Again, this is an inevitable shift if we are to continue our civilization and even our species in the long run. There is a culture shift here, fortunately, but many aspects of living a more sustainable life is still seen as a bit weird. It is, of course, often less practical since we live in a system that often does not prioritize that kind of life.
Organic food. I assume this too is an inevitable shift over the next decades. It will only become more and more clear how much pesticides impact our health and the health of other species. The massive loss of insects we see in many places, including here in Norway, is partly due to pesticides. (In addition to loss of habitat.)
How we grow our food. These days, most food is grown in monocultures and by depleting the soil. That cannot go on forever, or even for very long. In the future, it may be far more common to take care of soil health and grow with more diversity, and also mix in more native diversity in order to support the ecosystem. Today, this is still on the fringe.
Rewilding. Ecological preservation efforts have been relatively common over the last several decades, although intentional regeneration and rewilding were less common. These days, with an abundance of degraded land, regeneration and rewilding have become more of a focus and I suspect we will see a lot more of this in the future.
Green economics. Our current civilization assumes infinite nature, which is a significant reason for our ecological crisis. We need an economic system that takes ecological realities into account so that what’s easy and attractive to do, for individuals and organizations, is also good for our ecology. This is still very much marginalized, and it’s another thing that needs to become mainstream if we are to survive as a civilization and likely also as a species.
Ecological footprint. I see this very occasionally mentioned in mainstream media, and typically as an aside. To understand our situation today, we need to know about our ecological footprint, have numbers on our individual and collective ecological footprints, what contributes the most, and what we can do to reduce it while maintaining or increasing our quality of life. (I worked with this in the late 90s/early 2000s.)
Global ecological overshoot. We also need to understand global ecological overshoot. We are currently using far more resources than Earth can replenish. This is like receiving a good amount of money and spending more than what comes in. It looks OK for a while until we reach the end and it all comes crashing down. We are starting to see that crash today, and it will unfold in a far more dramatic way in the coming decades.
The severity of the ecological crisis. Most people, including many reporters, seem to assume that the ecological crisis will be manageable – we’ll get 1-3 degrees Celsius higher temperatures, the ocean levels will increase by some centimeters, we’ll get a few more strong storms, there will be a little more drought and flooding, and so on. Those who know the most, and especially those who are familiar with systems views, know it can easily be far more dramatic than that. Systems folks warned us about it decades ago, including that it can create a planet that’s unlivable for us and many other species and that it will happen within the lifetime of many alive today. In that perspective, the rest on this list is just about making a slightly better situation out of it while we can, which is meaningful in itself.
Change in worldview. These are aspects of The Great Turning as Joanna Macy calls it, and another aspect is a change in worldview. In the Western world, we have operated from a mindset that was maybe necessary for a while but also led to a great deal of our challenges including our global ecological crisis. This mindset is dualistic, patriarchal, power-over oriented, and more recently reductionistic. To survive and thrive, we need a more holistic, systemic, and/or integral worldview that sees us as part of the web of life. (Those three are distinct although also related.)
Universal basic income. I assume some municipalities, and perhaps even countries, will continue to explore this. It does make sense in theory, and with learnings from real-life experiments, we may find ways to do it that work well on a larger scale.
LGBT+. This shift is also already well underway in many societies, although there are some who still resist. I assume that in the future, LGBT+ awareness and inclusiveness may be the norm. Why not? It’s not a loss to anyone, only a gain.
Mental health. This shift is already well underway in many societies and perhaps our global society. In the past, mental health was seen as reserved for the ones with a diagnosis and obviously in need of it. It was also stigmatized. These days, it’s more accepted that mental health is for everyone. It makes sense to take active care of our mental health just as we take care of our physical health.
Research into meditation and the mind. There has been some research into the effects of meditation, yoga, and similar practices, and I assume there will only be more in the future.
A secular understanding of awakening. This ties into a secular understanding of awakening. To ourselves, we are consciousness, and the world to us happens within and as this consciousness. Awakening means that the consciousness we are becomes aware of itself, and that it forms itself into all our experiences. This is logically inevitable and it’s something we can explore in our own direct noticing. It’s also a kind of lowest common denominator that’s compatible with a spiritual understanding of awakening. I suspect this view too will become more common in the future.
Psychedelics. Psychedelics have been used in a therapeutic setting for decades, some states in the US now allow it, and there is more research in this field. I suspect it will be more common in the future, and legalized – at least in therapeutic settings – in more states and countries.
Inclusivity of the disabled. Most aspects of our society are designed with abled people in mind, with perhaps a ramp for wheelchairs as an afterthought. Because of my CFS, I have asked doctors and others if we can do appointments over video or phone, and it has always been quickly dismissed as impossible. When covid came, and it impacted abled people, it was suddenly more than possible. Ableism is alive and well, and I suspect – and hope – that this will change. It will benefit us all to have a society designed with the disabled in mind.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia. This is far more specific, but I want to include it since CFS is a part of my life. Over the decades, different types of diseases have been marginalized, dismissed, or misunderstood by mainstream medicine. MS, peptic ulcers, celiac disease, and Lyme disease are just some of these. Even cancer had stigma and shame associated with it. These days, CFS and fibromyalgia are among these marginalized, misunderstood, and sometimes stigmatized diseases, although there is a shift here too. (I have experienced doctors literally rolling their eyes and scoffing when I say I have CFS, and I have also experienced doctors who are knowledgeable and take it seriously.) I suspect that with continued research, these diseases will go from marginalized to better understood, and there may even be treatments in the future.
Reactions and push-back. When there are large cultural and social shifts, there are always reactions and push-back. After the US had its first black president (Obama), there was a pushback from scared white folks so they elected Trump. This is something we’ll see more of, and it’s not inherently bad or wrong. It’s what seems to happen with humans when there is change. Some get scared and want to move us back in time.
MY BIASES
What I wrote comes from a combination of three things: (i) My own biases, fascinations, priorities, and wishes, (ii) what’s likely required if we are to survive and thrive, and (iii) imagining some current trends continuing into the future.
Any vision of the future necessarily says more about us and the time and culture we live in than the actual future.
I do what most of us do and project my hopes and fears into the future. I fear how our ecological crisis will unfold. I hope we will make these kinds of changes to set us on a more sustainable course. I hope we’ll find the collective will to do so before it all collapses, and I fear we won’t.
Since I have lived most of my life in Western Europe and on the US West Coast, it looks to me as if society is moving this way. It does in these areas of the world, and much of the rest of the world may not be on the same track.