Gaine
AgelessThrival™
Magazine

Article from Issue #58 (June 7, 2023)

Fascism Will Destroy Itself, Part 6: Hope for the Future

by Mark Hall

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The rise of fascism and authoritarianism worldwide has been quite distressing. However, analyzing current trends in society and technology we can see that there is hope for a better future.

And when I say a better future, I don't just mean a return to where we were before this trend started. I mean a total paradigm shift into a brighter future than anyone can imagine.

COVID-19

It's been a pretty rough few years. Ever since 2020, we've been dealing with an unprecedented pandemic that has had profound implications throughout the world. Unfortunately one of those implications was an increase in authoritarian control over the people by governments.

It is already a topic of debate how much of that was necessary to control a deadly virus, and how much of that was an overreach of power. It will be a very controversial topic for decades to come.

But we are pulling out of the COVID crisis, or at least the emergency panic phase of the crisis. We're dropping restrictions and slowly getting back to normal. That will definitely help the world to get back on the path to democracy.

The Internet

While the internet has been a breeding ground for extremism, it does actually offer a positive way forward for the world.

There is a reason why repressive governments are spending an extraordinary amount of time and energy into attempting to suppress the internet. Because freedom to share information is a huge threat to those governments. The internet is still a new thing, and these attempts to restrict it are ultimately going to be futile. The internet is constantly expanding and becoming even more interconnected and trying to control it is a losing battle. Even now, a dedicated person in the most restrictive countries can find ways around the government filters. There are numerous services for private, encrypted communication, and things like VPNs can allow people access to restricted parts of the internet, and thanks to lowering costs to send satellites to orbit, there are several emerging satellite internet providers which can provide an entirely different route to the internet that completely bypasses the local infrastructure.

With freedom of information comes freedom of expression, and the ability to question what your government is doing and call them out on corruption and abuses of power.

Solar Power

This sounds like something a bit out of left field, but the growth of solar power is going to have a profound positive effect on society as a whole.

In the year 2000, an insignificant fraction of a percent of the world's electricity was provided by solar power. By the year 2015, it was more than 1% of the world's electricity. Throughout this time period, the amount of global solar power generation has doubled roughly every 2 and a half years. As of 2022, it was up to 4.5% (only seven years after it crossed the 1% mark). Extrapolating this further into the future we can see solar providing almost a quarter of Earth's electricity by 2029, more than half the Earth's electricity by 2032, and enough to power everything by 2035. This is not some distant far-future scenario. This is only 12 years from now. The explosive growth of solar power is absolutely huge and it seems like most people are unaware that this is evening happening. Even if there will be some unforeseen factor that eventually limits the growth of solar, it shows no signs of slowing at the moment, and will definitely grow to the point that it significantly displaces current non-renewable energy sources.

On top of this, electric vehicles have reached the point of mainstream acceptance. Every major vehicle manufacturer is shifting towards electric vehicles, with some even pledging to completely phase out gas-powered cars. This will mean that fossil fuels for vehicles will be replaced by electricity, which will be primarily solar by the 2030s if current trends continue. Our dependence on fossil fuels will finally be broken.

The source of many of the world's military conflicts has been a fight over energy resources. Replacing fossil fuels with renewable, free energy from the sun will drastically reduce the number of reasons for us to fight with each other. On top of that, the technology for solar cells is getting cheaper and more efficient. This will eventually reach the point where any average person can power their homes and communities with solar power.

When even small impoverished communities in developing countries can generate their own power, that gives them a means for self-sufficiency, and lowers the amount of control that any oppressive government might have over them. This will help bring the balance of the power back to the people.

Bad Examples

In some ways, the current world leaders are providing a great example for future generations. That is, an example of what not to do.

Future generations, thanks to the freedom of information that the internet gives us, will have ample opportunity to look back and see the myriad ways that the wannabe fascists have made fools out of themselves and brought their economies down with them.

Any successful person will tell you that the road they took to success was full of mistakes on the way. The key is to learn from those mistakes and use that information to make the right decisions and move forward to success.

This applies to the world as a whole. It's a blessing in disguise: we're making so many mistakes right now, we're going to learn so many valuable lessons!