I’m stealing this idea from a headline I saw on Vice.com today. What a great topic, right? I didn’t read it because I wanted to explore the topic for myself. Thanks, Vice.com!
With the world reopening thanks to the wonders of science, there’s been a bit of a hopeful buzz in the air lately–but it feels like it’s got an expiration date. The most important lesson of the last few years is that shit can happen. The rona could go full JRPG final boss and mutate into a horrific new form that sends us all scurrying back to lockdown. Climate catastrophe feels like it’s looming not far behind. Instead of just paying their taxes or their workers, the super rich are looking to solve their PR problems not by doing something useful for the world but by competing with each other to see which can launch his ass into space first. Right wing movements appear to be huffing more and stronger glue everyday. The out of control housing market is completely inaccessible to most of the population. The people we’ve entrusted with the power to stop all this are idly kicking the can down the road with their hands in their pockets. Summer 2021 feels like we’ve burst through the eyewall and we’re just waiting for the surrounding storm to drag itself further along and start dumping on us again.
But does that mean everything about this decade is going to suck? Possibly, but probably not. Seems like we’ve got at least a few good things to look forward to!
Playstation 5 will be back in stock at some point. Right? Right???
Baseball will either get its shit together or die completely. Either way, fans like me will get long stretches of their lives back.
Streaming services will begin to consolidate and make our lives easier.
Lab grown meat products will become cheap and ubiquitous. The downside: you’ll have to decide if you trust your buddy’s homebrewed venison.
Creative individuals will find ways to disrupt or work around the systems that are failing us. Healthcare, housing, and finance are all industries deeply entrenched in their ways that are ripe for disruption. We’re all ready seeing this on a small scale with reddit’s influence on the stock market and the rise of cryptocurrency. And sure, those are just drops in the bucket, but they’re proof that legions of smaller investors working together can move markets. What happens if that same cooperative energy is somehow projected into real estate, higher ed, or health insurance? Yes, I’d be fine living in a DogeHouse. How else am I ever going to afford my own place?
And most importantly, I’m going to write an epic novel that brings about world peace and a new era of prosperity, like if Bill and Ted traded in their guitars for a couple of pens. You will read it. You will love it. And you will be excellent to each other.