Looking at the future I see both less and more. I see us leading simpler lives that are more fulfilling. I see there being, many, many, many fewer of us and many, many, many more free and open wild places reserved for our friends and neighbors who’ve put up with our bad behavior for so long now. I see us eating less and benefiting more from our food, working less and enjoying our work more. In short I see a kind of paradise.

“You may say that I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one.” John Lennon

In the future I’m headed toward people who choose not to have children are encouraged and celebrated while people who choose to have children are first thoroughly tested and then, when/if they pass, thoroughly supported.

In this future the human body powers local personal transportation while all long distance personal transportation is powered by free energy technologies ( http://www.ahealedplanet.net/visions.htm ), as is all public transportation. In cities things are the reverse of today with the large expanses being reserved for people on foot and on bike while larger vehicles are the ones, which must face limits.

In this future cites and industrial areas are not dead zones but vibrant habitats for all creatures. This is already happening, slowly with green roofs and ideas like Cradle to Cradle design (take the time to look these things up, it’s the coolest thing ever). Humans are definitely smart enough to make this happen and as the systems of the “corporate age” fail we will be free enough too.

In the future it’s easy to live in small towns if you want to and I personally hope to. Free energy, gardening, free communication are just a hint of what will make this possible.

In this future TVs will be gradually repurposed beginning with the phasing out of all reality TV (this includes television news), followed by commercials, sitcoms, hour long dramas, infomercials… until gradually all that’s left is a movie channel, a documentary channel, a sports channel and all of these automatically shut off every two hours. I suspect that TVs will ultimately end up as high tech ways to display family photos or all time great bowling scores.

In this future there won’t be any more garbage. This will be because it isn’t possible to buy some much garbage anymore (no more corporations to make it) and because all short-term products will be compostable. I really, really love this part since I fucking hate taking out the garbage.

In this future tobacco, corn, oil and alcohol will not be as valuable or as pervasive as they are today. They may have some small use but they’ll generally be laughed about as oddities of the past.

Marijuana will grow everywhere because it is a weed, because the stoners are right it’s an incredibly useful plant, because it smells good and because as Peter Tosh sang, “goats love to play wit it.”

As you read this you shouldn’t consider it utopian dreaming but instead the barest beginnings of the beauty that is possible.

peace and rest in peace Howard Zinn ( http://www.howardzinn.org/default/index.php )