On Our Way
to 2076
By Albert B. Kelly
Back in 1976, Americans
were celebrating our nation’s bicentennial. If you weren’t around then, you have no way of knowing what those times were like
and if you were around, you may not want to dwell there too long.
While the bicentennial
celebration itself was quite memorable around the nation, those days in the
mid-seventies were marked by post-Watergate disillusionment, high inflation,
high gas prices, crumbling cities, cold war fatigue, and some bad disco music.
In the days leading up to
the bicentennial, there was some looking back but more importantly, there was a
lot of looking ahead. Recently, I came across an old magazine ad from petroleum
company ARCO (Atlantic Richfield Company) that had the results of a survey they
did asking average Americans what life would look like at the Tricentennial in
2076.
The months-long survey
received over 50,000 responses, generally in letter form, which they would ultimately
turn into a book. In this ad they gave a few highlights that I thought
revealing. For example, 91% of those surveyed in 1976 said they wanted the
family to remain the basic social unit.
Today, 39 years later, not
even halfway to 2076, the family unit has been pulled and tugged and stretched
in many ways. In some cases we’ve abused the notion of family and in other
cases we’ve redefined what family means but through all of it, we’ve not really
found a viable alternative and I doubt we will.
In 1976, 62% of those
responding to the survey felt that the nation would be better off when there is
no racial, sexual, or religious discrimination. While this certainly remains
true today, it feels like we’ve become far more tribal in our politics and
polarized in the rest of our lives.
Maybe we were just as
divided then, but today it feels far more intense and if nothing else, it has
left a lot less room for compromise or meeting one another half way. I could be
wrong, but far too much today has the feel of a zero sum game.
Who knows what 2076 will
hold; most of us won’t be here, but perhaps the tide will swing the other way,
as it usually does, and our children and our children’s children will live in a
time that is known for reconciliation and cooperation. We can hope and maybe we
can even plant the seeds for this to be so.
Back in 1976, 73% of those
responding expected a reaffirmation of religion and faith by the time of the Tricentennial
in 2076. We seem a far distance from that today. On one hand, we sanitize
public life of any hint of religion; whether it’s the Ten Commandments in a
court room or expunging the word “Christmas” from public discourse.
Yet, we live at a time
when people will strap on explosives to blow up civilians in a café, kill
cartoon writers, take hostages, behead journalists, and declare war on
innocents in the name of religion. And still, I think of few things more worthy
than a genuine and robust faith that seeks to build up, heal, forgive, and
redeem rather than pillage and destroy.
A full two-thirds of those
responding in 1976 expressed a strong desire for more individual participation
in government; citing better communication. On the communication side, we have
the tools today through the internet and social networks. It remains to be seen
if divisions will ease long enough for people to realize what’s possible now.
Finally, three-quarters of
those taking the survey in 1976 favored a slower-paced, more rural life. This
reminds me that our mostly rural area is something to be treasured because the
pace of life has quickened considerably; in the environment, the spread of
disease, the economy, communications, travel, even the passage of time. Achieving
balance is a fight worth waging for the next generation.
The upshot of the survey
was simply this; people back then believed that life in the future (which
includes our present) could be better than it was in 1976. I don’t know if
we’ve failed the spirit of those days; but I do know that this belief connects those
days to us now in a profound way because we still live with the faith that says
life will be better in the future.
It is a well-founded hope for
us now as it was for the people who took that survey, because ultimately their
conclusion was that the future lies not in the land or in the technologies to
be mastered; but in the hearts and minds of people…our greatest resource. And it’s
still true today.