The purpose of this book is to change the way you think about the world. At its heart, this change is about a shift in perspective. In the pages that follow, I will ask you to consider familiar topics from a different point of view, one that may be very different from the one you have now. You should expect to disagree, at least at first, with a lot of what you read here. That means, to get the most out of this book, you will need to be flexible and adventurous in your thinking. You will need to keep an open mind.
For example, consider the following claim: There is no finer proof of the first part of the (very long) subtitle of this book – “Why We Are Going to Be OK” – than the Covid-19 global pandemic.
That may seem like a ridiculous thing to say, not to mention a little tone-deaf. Covid-19 was a disaster of epic proportions in which millions died and billions more suffered losses, dislocations, and hardships of all kinds. How could it possibly be proof that “we’re going to be OK”? If anything, surely it proves the opposite — just one more bit of evidence we’re all going to Hell in a hand basket.
Hear me out.
First, remember that pandemics, like all natural disasters, happen in every age. The Black Death, The Spanish Flu, thousands more through human history. But Covid highlights how much our standards have risen and our capabilities have improved since the last time around. Far from showing us only how bad things are, the pandemic shows us – if we are willing to look – how much we have achieved. It is, in other words, evidence of human progress.
When it comes to the Covid-19 pandemic, you have to look for the good news within the bad. But once you do, there’s plenty to find. For example, over two-thirds of deaths from Covid are people over 70. Yet only until very recently did the average human being live to 70. In other words, the majority of the effort made (successful and unsuccessful) to save lives in the pandemic was to save the lives of people who, at any other time in human history, statistically speaking would already be dead. It is not that it is wrong to do so! But our ancestors never had the luxury to care. We do. Clearly, our standards have risen, a lot.
Our capabilities have risen alongside our standards. We rightly fear Mother Nature and her army of hidden pathogens like Covid-19. But once open war started and we Homo sapiens mobilized with our tools and our knowledge, it was clear the coronavirus never stood a chance. As the disease spread, information about it, its cause, symptoms, and treatments spread faster, distributed by a globe-spanning human network as sophisticated as any natural system. Racing ahead of the pandemic, this system inspired new technologies and spurred action on a thousand different levels.
Think of it this way: It took millions of years for this coronavirus to evolve into the contagious killer it is today (even if it might have gotten a boost at a Chinese biolab towards the end of that evolution). We developed a vaccine to knock it out in a few months. In other ways, like how we destroy the environment or drive species to extinction, this mismatch between our technical powers and nature’s defenses is depressing. But in this case, it’s pretty great. Go us!
There is plenty more. Because of the pandemic, people were trapped in their homes, but we now have technology – only recently invented – that allows many to continue to work or have face-to-face conversations with family and friends without leaving the house. Hundreds of millions lost their jobs, but we now have governments that are willing and able to foot the bill for income lost in disasters. Our economies went into lockdown, and yet our food supply, electricity, water, and other essentials were barely affected. And so on. None of these things were true in the last pandemic, or if they were, only in a much, much more limited way. (And of course, much of it is still not true for many of us; more on that in a moment. But in the past it wasn’t true for anyone.)
Before I get carried away with how great all this progress is, allow me to repeat myself: I am not saying a pandemic is a good thing. Individual pain and suffering goes on every day, everywhere. A disaster like a pandemic heaps on more. But we shouldn’t make the mistake of taking individual examples of hardship and projecting them on to the world as a whole. If all you can see is that people are suffering then, well, that’s understandable. That makes you human. It is right to see pain and suffering and not be blind to it. But don’t let it stop you from taking some perspective, too. We need both.
For anyone who is pessimistic about the fate of the world, whether because of pandemics, or climate change, or nuclear war, or politics, or what have you, reorienting your POV about the Covid-19 pandemic is a wonderful opportunity for a little perspective, if you choose to take it. It is a reminder that we can survive the big stuff. That a body blow is not a death knell.
Why does all this matter?
It matters because, as I put it in the second half of my very long subtitle, we could be great. But whether we will be hinges on accepting and understanding the first part: We are going to be OK. Far from living on the edge of disaster, humanity – you, me, and everyone we know – are at the border of a world far better than the best of what we have now. But to be able to seize that opportunity first requires acknowledging it exists.
The first goal of this book is to show you that the present and the future are a lot brighter than you might think. In the pages that follow, I define what I mean by the After Age and how it explains my optimism about the world today. I’ll show you why it is perfectly reasonable to believe we are going to be OK, mostly because we already are.
If objections are rising in your mind, I ask you to suspend your disbelief a bit longer. I am not arguing things are perfect. Definitely not. I am certainly not arguing that the good times are equally distributed. Not even close. If you look at the evidence however, it’s hard not to see a strong trend in the right direction, for everyone.
By considering an optimistic view of the future, you will feel better about the present, despite its many flaws. Existential anxiety about the future of the world is a source of real psychic unease. This unease is probably more influential than we realize, because it exists at a bedrock level in our minds, affecting everything else on top of it. In other words, if we are fundamentally unsure whether “everything is right with the world”, then any other happiness we have can seem more fragile, fleeting, and unsure. The fact that such existential anxiety is not backed up by the facts makes it even more tragic. It isn’t helping anyone, yourself included.
But showing you we are going to be OK is just the start. My real goal is to convince you we could be great, and that you can help us get there. How to do so is what the rest of this book is about.
If the coronavirus showed how far we have come, it also highlighted some of our continuing flaws. While they take many different forms, they share a common source: We are not good enough at cooperating with each other, as individuals and as groups of people of all sizes.
Yet at the same time, the fruits of our progress are pushing us towards even greater cooperation, whether we want to or not. In our economies, our environment, our politics, and our cultural and social lives, simply maintaining a minimal degree of stability requires greater and greater cooperation, as I will explain.
This clash, between our (totally understandable) reluctance to cooperate more, on the one hand, and the forces we have unleashed demanding greater cooperation, on the other, is causing conflict within and between nations, peoples, and individuals. This conflict is likely to get worse before it gets better. Brace yourselves.
But we can be great! And I believe we will be. So hold on tight, and keep your eyes on the future. You have a part to play in it.
The second part of this book is filled with actionable ideas for reconsidering the way you think about the world around you based on the goal of increasing cooperation between all of us. These ideas are grouped based on widening circles of concern, starting with the self and expanding all the way out to the national level, and beyond. But whatever the topic, they are focused on you, the individual, how you can change your perspective on the world around you, for both your benefit, and everyone’s.
This book is designed to give you hope for the present, and new ideas to help you flourish in the future. But that is not why I wrote it. I wrote it because I want your help to keep the After Age going so its benefits can reach everyone alive. I see a bright future for us, but I know it is not guaranteed. I believe that changing how we perceive the world around us, and our place in it, even just slightly, is the best thing each of us can do to help all of us have a future that is great.
Before we get to great, however, I need to convince you we can get to OK. That is the next chapter.