TERRA CITY - A PROBLEM

1. A PROBLEM

Most people around the globe waited for the year 2000 with great expectations. Almost everyone was hoping, or fearing, that something really special would happen. Now, almost two years later, we can look back to that moment and what followed, and we can say that we did indeed enter into the new millennium in one of the most “glorious” ways possible - We headed into the first global recession ever, experienced one of the worst terrorist attacks in history and have been seriously discussing the possibility of a third world war. We also found out that the night of the new millennium, which was supposed to be a moment of celebration worldwide, was a terrible nightmare for security crews around the world who feared unprecedented negative events. As a result of all this, we are now encountering new and massive governmental and industrial security measures which will directly and indirectly affect almost every aspect of our lives.

On other fronts, Wall Street registered the biggest bankruptcy and accounting scandal in its history. This was followed by other “spectacular” bankruptcies and scandals. Health organizations worldwide are counting millions of AIDS victims every year without anyone being able to deliver any real solution, and the Christian church is making news trying its best to cover up the acts of its clergymen. Besides that, the still unsolved devastating cancer problem, the fact that we have accumulated enough nuclear arsenal to blow out several times the entire solar system, the continuously worsening environment, the scaring level of street and domestic violence, the drug related problems, the ridiculous number of people without jobs worldwide and the horrendously shameful number of children and adults without food on the table may sound like more “obsolete” news. There was nothing more progressive, original and inspiring for the beginning of the millennium. No wonder why deep in our hearts we are all disappointed.

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There are dozens of excellent books written by eminent writers containing thousands of pages of concrete information, data and images describing the disastrous state of our lives and society, in most of their aspects, that make any decent and realistic human being lose their enthusiasm about our current state and our optimism about our future. In this context Nelson Mandela concludes: “We have sufficient cause to be cynical about humanity. We have seen enough injustice, strife, division, suffering, and pain, and our capacity to be massively inhuman” (Battersby 10).
The question is: Are we happy with all this? With the course of our lives and the reality of our society? If your answer is “Yes”, you may not need to read this book any further. If your answer is a resounding “No”, then you admit with the rest of us that we have a problem, a very serious problem, and in the next chapters of this book we will begin to discuss this problem and search for a possible solution.