Minute Paper 1/24

Although everyone’s essays illustrated varied ideas on what our communities may be like in the year 2028, there where many recurring concepts from the “Day in My Life” essay and today’s readings that stood out to me. Whether with a pessimistic or optimistic outlook, global warming and other environmental issues where present in close to every essay. This along with a lesser emphasis on the financial conditions led to many speculations on how our world will be powered, which included solar, hydrogen, dams, and even wind. There where also many statements made on our communities achieving harmony and even a few mentions of a singular world nation. In my opinion neither of these are remotely possible in a mere thirty years, when our current day countries can’t even come to basic agreements or keep promises, and if you have had a sibling on a soccer team, it is painfully obvious how easily a harmonious community can become fraught with conflict. There was also a heavy emphasis on an increasingly powerful government, which, depending on the essay, could have been in relation to the food we eat, the cars we drive, the ideals that are taught to our children, and how we use our resources with the occasionally disturbingly Marxist concepts like a government run healthcare system and even assigned jobs being mentioned. Personally I think Virginia summed up the most prevalent point throughout today’s essays, in her description of a world where we are slowly losing our freedoms, with our governments or other powerful groups easing them away from us under the disguise of a well meaning big brother.

Mark Alexander