75

On the eve of my 75^th birthday, I think about Corky, the six-year-old who lived across the street from me in 1949. “Mom’s gonna buy a new radio,” he announced, “and it’s gonna have moving pictures on it.” I could not imagine. But ever since our first TV, the ‘impossibilities’ of technological progress have come at a staggering pace.

Black-and-white was soon replaced by color, and a mere fifteen years later Americans walked on the moon. By 1974, the web connected research universities, and within decades the public had personal computers, the internet, smart phones and millions of other world-changing innovations, most of which were beyond the comprehension of someone who as a kid sat before the radio on Saturday mornings envisioning the faces of the rough-and-tumble cowboys whose gravelly voices made it clear that in the battle between good and evil, good would always win.

Technology has no allegiance to good or evil. Technological progress seemed “good” because it shone the light of knowledge into households worldwide. It connected 7.3 billion culturally-diverse people. It built the substructure for us to unite as one people on one small, traumatized, exhausted planet.

But technology buffs ignored the greatest impediment to true progress, which is human nature itself. Techies and investors assumed gadgets would miraculously eradicate flaws in our genetic wiring. Instead, we got viral conspiracies, internet trolls, hate groups and mass shootings. Technology, in effect, put AR-15s in the hands of cavemen.

Had we taken just half the money that went into developing and making high-tech stuff, plus much of the wealth that IPO investors pocketed, plus many of the billions ‘earned’ through rising stock values, if we had taken a hefty chunk of all that money and spent it on understanding human nature, we might be well on our way to stopping the dual threats to human health and survival, namely, the widening social, economic and political divisions, and a rapidly deteriorating environment.

But we didn’t. And it won’t happen soon. Here’s why.

Throughout my life, the country was ‘parented’ by two political parties. Dad was the protector who united his supporters against a foreign enemy. He borrowed money and built up the military. When Mom was voted into office, she united her supporters around the sense of community. She wanted money for schools, healthcare and a safety net for the disadvantaged. Being fiscally responsible, she didn’t want to borrow money, but to tax those who had made money from the war economy. Dad was furious. “Tax and spend,” he hollered. And soon, he was back in office.

The cycle ended in 2017 when our newly elected Dad lacked the courage to stand up to foreign enemies. He still needed to unite his supporters against a common foe, and since Mom had achieved extraordinary social progress, he attacked her.

Obviously, spousal abuse is not the ‘good’ that cowboys promised! The abuser shrugs, “So what? Women have no recourse.”

Women, though, do have recourse. United, the suffragettes secured the vote and passed protective laws. #MeToo held wealthy, powerful abusers accountable and stripped them of sexual ‘privileges’. United, women could secure the institutions essential for a peaceful, sustainable global village - education, healthcare, the environment, a free press, the right to assemble - democracy itself.

Corky. You and I are now leather-faced cowboys. We must champion the ‘good’ cause. It’s time we got off our high horses and backed women. Female leadership qualities befit a filled-up Earth.