I used to dream of post-scarcity solar system-wide and galaxy-wide human societies, like the one in Star Trek. I wanted to be Captain Kirk as a kid. I at least wanted to be on the Starship Enterprise and not wear a red shirt. But these days I have a hard time envisioning a future that resembles a sci fi world I’d want to live in.

What happens in the future is anybody’s guess. But I mostly read “hard” science fiction, which to me just means the story seems somewhat plausible, at least for the time they wrote it. “If this goes on…” etc.

Those books got me in the habit of running scenarios – or “catastrophizing” as my wife calls it. Not that I don’t enjoy utopia stories. “And Then There Were None” about a society based on Gandhi’s philosophy, is a pretty good example of that. Gave me a chuckle.

Supposing I had a dream that felt like a prophesy and I happened to be right? (Carl Jung did that, kind of). Would it matter?

As much as I don’t want it to be, the Rapture Machine dream I had way back in college, might have been very close. That was many years before I was able to accept what it was really telling me.

If an asteroid was headed for the planet, I bet we’d pull together, figure out what to do, put some resources into it. Instead, we’re worried about zombie apocalypses and don’t trust our neighbors anymore. We’re arguing about whether climate change is real, based on team affiliation.

Meanwhile extreme weather is about to cook us or wash us away. Time for the teams to have a pow wow. Not that I see that happening soon. If I could make it happen I would.

Another reason for the “Late” in Late Boomer. Now I see things a little clearer than I used to, but man I overslept. I certainly wish I’d grok-ed the system before I got old and decrepit.

I think it’s time to get realistic and admit we’re in a pull our ass out of the fire situation on planet earth, economically, politically, culturally, and climate-ly. Trying to figure out who gets to control the future is seriously putting the cart before the horse.

We all have a lot of work to do to fix this planet and we haven’t been working together. Too busy dishing out sick burns, as if that mattered. Time to stop demonizing and start talking. Lead with what music are you into, your pets, etc. instead of your tribe sucks.