The pace of history is accelerating ever more, and, if we don't think things through carefully and wisely, misguided momentum and tragic inertia could bring unspeakable pains to the world.
World War I brought 20 million military and civilian deaths, and 21 million wounded. That is roughly half of South Korean population killed and the other half wounded. I'd like to quote from a book review by Richard Aldous who quotes from Barbara Tuchman's book, "The Guns of August." "Prince Bulow, the former German chancellor, said to the then-chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg: "How did it all happen?" And Bethmann-Hollweg replied: "Ah, if only one knew."
www.en.wikipedia.org
This conversation is supposed to have happened in 1914, in the beginning of the war. This is interesting because some historians insist Germany didn't stop the war because I quote Max Hastings: "Even if Berlin did not seek to contrive a general European conflagration, it was willing for one, because it believed that it could win." Misguided momentum and tragic inertia won over the better judgment for unspeakable pains and "Loss of a generation."
Another painful, too painful, case is North Korea and its inability to break through the tragic historical burden that is the cowardly, regressive inertia. Here, we have "Löss of three generations."
For that matter, the whole North Eastern Asia is clearly turning into next hot spot in the world. At this point, China and Japan didn't seem to have learned much from the history. Maturity takes forever and these boys seem to have a long way to go. China is going back to being a bully, and Japan crawling into their shell. It seems "overcoming Japanness" is not that easy. It is time to think things through, this time, carefully. China can't afford a 'Loss of another hundred years. '
In the U.S., we are facing many critical issues, but then, most of the issues are global and problems for the whole world. The issues are many and complicated, but every issue is more or less tied to the economy and what it implies. Jobs and livable wages. Inequalities in income and opportunities. Empathy and reflection robbing hyper-competitiveness. Rigid ideological inertia. The list goes on.
As the pace of the history accelerates, these issues are quickly becoming more serious and difficult to handle. Good ideas to tackle the problems are hard to find, let alone building a majority consensus to fix the problems. For example, there is no political will to make a progressive corrections on the rampant capitalism that is slowly but surely choking the majority of the people. The capitalism has accomplished much for the world, but it is time to think things through. And the list goes on.
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