Rethinking the Whole Paradigm!

From time to time, I am jolted into the need to start from scratch. I clearly accomplished a "redo" in religion. More recently, I have transitioned from thinking that Yoga was for others, to thinking a DVD would help, to the point that I am now enrolled in class. Walter Mead is a person who can really upset the proverbial apple cart by refuting even those I hold in the highest regard, e.g., Paul Krugman. In his most recent blog, Mead throws the gauntlet to Krugman for remaining tied to an underlying world view built around the emergence of our strong economy following WWII.

The thrust of his comments focuses on the fact that the economy, as we have known it, cannot be resurrected under any circumstances. And if so, then all sorts of other notions of what is needed to maintain a strong economy falls by the wayside. And he references virtually everything.

If all jobs will be vulnerable to automation, then education is no solution to more jobs. If the economy is so reliant on computers, then unions will be useless and, of course, there would be no monies to support the union initiatives, at least as they have been known.

Without knowing the details of the future, he calls to reconsider virtually everything that we thought that "necessary" for a strong economy. For someone as old as I, this is a challenge without a fear component. My "world" in retirement will not be impacted. For my children and grandchildren, however, his views should stimulate all sorts of discussion, hopefully designed to alter behavior so that they can stay on "top" of the flow of history.