Riding a feisty horse

It's no secret to anyone, surely. Institutions in droves are struggling, and failing to survive. Some have simply shut up shop; continuing simply no longer feasible. 

Coming soon to a tree near you

Many of us grew up in the age of the family farm, for instance. Mom and pop, kids and animals institutions that nostalgia paints a rosy pink. A Conservative politician recently chided the government for introducing legislation that would prevent “sprinkling,” incorporating a farm or business and spreading the income around to family members in order to decrease tax liability. She said it would kill the family farm. I'm sorry, but you can't kill an entity that's already dead!

Seems we've generally walked blindfolded toward one or the other precipice; embedded in human nature is an underlying assumption that tomorrow will be much like today. And so an historic school's demise seems sudden when the signs of its coming have certainly been there all along. Whether the ability to predict and explain why the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire, or the local Presbyterian Church, or St. Matthew's Christian High School are tapering down to their inevitable end matters or not is debatable. Except, possibly, that dying happens more gracefully when decline, change is expected, the accommodations to it prepared before the handwriting hits the wall.

But as Jesus himself said, “a prophet is not without honour, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house (Matthew 13:57).” Denial of the evidence of unwelcome trends is a strong temptation. Although much of the scientific research regarding climate change took place in the USA, climate change denial is most strident there.

Hardest hit, seems to me, are the institutions and practices that rested on shared interests, on community, on cooperation. Advancing technological change brings with it a reduction in inter-dependency. We needn't go to a theatre to be entertained when it's all available on wide-screen, high-definition TV at home. We won't meet our neighbours in the store when goods are ordered on the internet, delivered by drone. And who needs to get up and go to church, or school, when it can all be delivered for a small price to our living rooms? Is it a mere coincidence that technology and obesity are advancing in lock-step?

There are surely ideals that aren't hard to discover when we talk about individual lives and community well-being. I think health, joy, beauty, safety, comfort, creativity, intimacy, fulfillment would figure in such a set of ideals. The key question is not how institutions and practices can be maintained or resuscitated, it's how social and personal ideals can be met when institutions and practices are rendered obsolete. Can we happily survive the megacorp shift? Can we thrive?

So what trends should we be acknowledging most urgently today? To my mind, the institutions that are not only surviving but thriving are capitalist, corporate entities. The widening chasm between the poor and the obscenely wealthy is a trend we dare not deny. The advance of computer intelligence and robotics will mean that goods and services will have to be distributed differently to a population where only a part earn a living through employment. That's just for starters.

 I can't find the quote and I'm not sure who said it, but it goes something like this: Progress is a feisty, skittish horse; you either learn to ride it or risk getting trampled. Sounds like Karl Marx. One thing is certain; despair is not the answer for the taming of any kind of horse. The demise of our favourite institutions is sad, of course, but the future is as bright as faith and courage are willing to make it.