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Hassan Syed

Executive Director (Resources), Twycross Zoo, United Kingdom

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Do you believe that our future is bright, if yes, why and if not, why not?

While looking at the trends like human health, access to knowledge, access to technology, technology growth, etc., we start believing that our future is going to be very good. On the other hand, looking at the trends like destruction of nature, speed at with we are consuming natural and environmental resources, explosion of human population, carbon in the air and climate change, etc., we think that really difficult times are ahead of us.

I am interested in knowing the sources of optimism and causes of pessimism in us.

Just to be clear, "our" means humankind :-)

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  • Erika Reglin-Hormann

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    Sep 24 2012: I cannot speak for humankind. I can only speak for myself. But as I am embedded in society, I believe that most people believe what the majority says. So if majority is feeding mostly up with bad news, have a not satisfying job, read books/papers and extract the negative things out of it, listen to destructive rather than to constructive people, remember more bad than good experiences, you will get a "No" for a bright future. And vice versa.

    I think the main source is the media (tv, newspapers, magazines, internet).

    Ask people where they get their opinions from. The negative point of view is coming from the outside and gives examples of how evil the world is (war, poverty, all forms of ...isms, crime, markets etc.), the positive view often is a result of personal experience. I myself became careful with people who solve the problems of our world from the couch or carry the earths suffering on their shoulders, rarely talking about themselves in a personal way. Instead I love to listen to people who talk about what really happened to themselves (in their job or daily life) or even better: show me something I didn't know so far and use for myself.

    A lot of stuff is just intellectual boredom.
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      Hassan Syed

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      Sep 24 2012: What you have said about believing in actions is so true. I really like your logic and hope that everyone believes in words that are backed by the actions.

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