WHAT IS THE BIGGEST 21ST CENTURY PROBLEM?

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST 21ST CENTURY PROBLEM?

Since we entered the 21st Century over nineteen years ago, the world has undergone many extreme changes from the previous century. Which developing problem is the scariest?

• Global warming with increased temperatures, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, droughts, and other climatic issues
• The new danger posed by terrorism around the world, especially since 911.
• Political upheaval in countries in all parts of the globe - the Middle East, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, and the global refugee problems that have resulted
• Political and social unrest in almost all countries, to varying degrees, marked by economic uncertainty, increasing poverty, the rising cost of living  and major disparity issues 
• US and global gun violence, lone assassins using guns or vehicles or bombs, and major increases in security risks everywhere.

This is only a very short list of some of the significant events in the world that have often taken front stage and made the headlines in the past two decades. I propose that the greatest new problem that has raised its ugly head in our recent history is none of the above. 

I would suggest that the most significant problem that has emerged in the past twenty years is our loss of confidence in all of our media sources as to what is the truth and what is fiction. As I grew up, when I read of some event or listened to a speaker, I was naive enough to believe that what they said was probably true and I did not question them.

Today, I and many others, have totally lost that confidence. Now when I hear a news report or read some headline, I immediately ask myself, “I wonder if that is true?” No longer do I just accept the word of a president or a prime minister or a priest or a doctor or a lawyer without some skepticism or at least reluctance. 

In one way, my newly developed sense of questioning is a good thing because it forces me to be more observant and to attempt to find additional information to support or clarify something that I used to accept on blind faith. On the other hand, it is very disconcerting to always feel that we have to be cautious in all that we see and hear that is news related. It was much easier in the past to believe the parish priest when he preached, or believe the doctor when he said everything was OK. 

This decline in public confidence has changed the temper of our world. It leads to more questioning, more uncertainty, more stress and leads to more groups of people trying to strongly sell a particular perspective on a certain issue. More people now protest everything, from increased plastics in the oceans to the treatment of ethnic minorities in foreign countries. 

This declining confidence in what we can and should believe is also reflected in a few new expressions that have recently evolved that further muddy the waters of what is true. American politicians and newscasters regularly have referred to “fake news” and “alternative facts”. A shadow of doubt seems to cloud almost any news pronouncement. The ultimate blow to my acceptance of what I read and view was made by Rudolph W. Giuliani when he pontificated that, “Truth isn’t truth.” 

On that final note, I rest my case!