The U.S.A. in 2041

[TheRealJuliane]

But I believe if more people actually stand up against these evil ideologies, then maybe we will be able to turn our society back to God. One must always remember that the future is unpredictable and anything can happen. We must always hold for the best and stand up against these people because if we don’t, only then they will change our society completely.

I agree - it is up to us not to give in to a spirit of discouragement and fear.

Let’s write our own list, OK?

Political

* The government has been stopped from uncontrolled growth and many government agencies have been eliminated.  The USPS has been privatized and Americans everywhere are no longer afraid to go to the Post Office, where there is excellent customer service.
* The IRS has been eliminated because a flat tax has replaced the tax code.  At first, there was a lot of unemployment of tax attorneys, tax accountants, and other tax-related businesses, but those people have now found happier work elsewhere.
* There are still two political parties, but neither one supports abortion, euthanasia, or socialism in any form.  The parties compete to see which one can be the most pro-America.
* Animals are treated as well as possible because babies aren't killed any more.  The value of life being embraced from conception to the grave has spread to unexpected areas of society, and people take better care of animals as well as the environment.
* Americans have organized a new form of militia and more young men are being trained in the proper use of firearms than at any point in our history.  Since this is protected by the 2nd Amendment, these militias are not feared or attacked by the state or federal government, but respected and encouraged.

Economic

* More people are working and creating real goods since the economic conditions in the US are so favorable.  A lot of corporations that used to send work to other countries have returned home and are providing the goods that people want and the jobs that people need.  
* Petroleum has not run out, contrary to the dire predictions common in the 1990's and 2000's, and it looks as though the earth is re-generating natural gas and petroleum so our supplies will never run out.  Technology has improved so that the hybrid cars are no longer necessary because we can easily get 100 mpg without using dangerous batteries.  Hydrogen cars are still in development, but with the taxes as low and the regulations relaxed, there is a huge amount of innovation so that the next fuel source will be even better.
* The people who feared that everyone would carry a microchip by now, which they believed to be "The Number of the Beast," have been disappointed because that technology has almost disappeared.  People have decided that Big Brother does not have to be a reality and have refused to allow more cameras into their lives as well.

See part 2

 

[TheRealJuliane]

Social

* People have tired of being the same, and men are now taking better care of their families so that more women can stay with the children and have more children at home.
* The size of families has increased every year that abortion has been illegal.  It is as if a great dam has been broken and suddenly it is very positive to have a large family.
* Neighbors and communities help one another first, and then churches get involved, because the local, state and federal government are no longer providing welfare, except in the most extreme cases, and then with a lot of conditions attached.
* People do not expect the government to solve their problems and have again become self-reliant and community-focused.
* The idea of “marriage” has been redefined; it is between one man and one woman and there are no homosexual marriages.
* Homosexuality is no longer flaunted and most homosexuals can have happy lives after a particularly effective therapy is discovered.  No one hates homosexuals and there is no discrimination, so there is no need for gay parades and protests.
* Pornography has almost disappeared - one of those unexpected benefits of protecting the unborn!
* Marijuana is almost a joke - there is no importation from Mexico and life has become so good for most people that even alcohol is a lot less attractive than it once was.
* Christmas is celebrated by going to church.  Since people are not as materialistic, the holiday is more religious than ever.
* Health care is very good to excellent, since the government got out of the picture and allowed doctors and hospitals to regulate themselves.  We also no longer allow half of Mexico to receive health care for free.  And obstetrics wards are huge, and getting larger!
* Euthanasia is a far-distant nightmare.  Babies born today will be horrified to think about people being "unplugged" and allowed to die.
* Since there are always some unplanned babies, adoption is easier for couples and "reproductive technologies" are not popular any more.  All the frozen embryos left over from earlier times have been brought into life and no more are being created.  The "snowflakes" have great popularity in society.  People regularly buy their meals in restaurants.
* Since people don't live such stressed lives, they are more active and choose healthier foods, and obesity is again rare.  
* High fructose corn syrup, having been spotted as the cause of much of the obesity, has fallen out of favor as an ingredient and people are using real sugar with discretion.  Soda is not popular and diet sodas are seen as almost like a drug - not worth the side effects.

Spiritual

* With the elimination of abortion, God has smiled upon the US and churches are full for every service.  The humanists are even being converted at a record rate.  Communism no longer exists.  It looks as though our "separated brethren" may unite at some point in the future.  
* Vocations are way up, and the religious life appeals to many ex-humanists, and they do a lot of good in foreign lands, helping to stop terrorism and convert terrorists to Catholicism.

 

[BenRosa]

it is up to us not to give in to a spirit of discouragement and fear.

Juliane…true. I did not mean to imply that we should give in and I truly hope and pray your outlook is the one that will come about.

 

[Aelred_Minor]

Thing is, when people try to predict the future they generally compare the present with the recent past, identify trends there, then imagine those trends continueing indefinitely into the future. Is this the way history actually tends to go, in the long run? I don’t think it is.

Even with a relatively safe prediciton like that technology will advance, it generally doesn’t advance the way people imagine it will. In the mid-twentieth century people imagined flying cars and colonies on the moon and maybe Mars by now, because transportation technology had been revolutionized within living memory and the space program had just begun. Our cars still go along on rubber tires and NASA’s just given up its manned space vehicles, but we have things like the internet and smartphones that no one could have imagined back then.

 

[Dan_Daly]

1. The Catholic Church will be outlawed, worshippers will have to sneak around at the risk of arrest

This depends on how courageously we live the faith. Over the past few decades, the growth of government and the advancement of the culture of death have come about largely BECAUSE of Catholics, not in spite of their opposition.

I think we will see something like China today- a “Patriotic” church which does the political will of the state and and underground Church which preaches the Truth of the Gospel.

Pax.

 

[Aelred_Minor]

Regarding political parties, the current trend recently has clearly been towards greater polarization. How long can this continue though until the system breaks apart in some way or the two parties are brought back together, by common need or a new political philosophy or whatever? Eventually I could even see one of the parties (I’d put my money on it being the Republicans, if it happens at all) finally losing the people’s support entirely and the other party having near-universal support, followed by a new major political party emerging, as the Whigs did after the “era of good feeling” or the old party emerging from its ashes, rebranded. Really though, who knows?

By the way, Swiss Guy, I like your “Location.” I used to live in Syracuse, NY, where the joke was that we had four seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction.

 

[Aelred_Minor]

By the way, none of this is to say one shouldn’t write a fictional story set in a future in which current political and social trends have continued for decades, reaching horrifying conclusions. That kind of science fiction can have a valid place as commentary on our own times, pointing out the flaws of current trends if they were followed to their logical conclusions. I think George Orwell’s 1984 was of this sort, though I’m not tremendously familiar with the strains of politics and philosophy that were current at the time which he presumably was criticizing. The actual future is highly unlikely to fit such a vision, but the real purpose is to warn against continuing to go in the direction we are currently going.

 

[Dan_Daly]

Regarding political parties, the current trend recently has clearly been towards greater polarization.

I disagree. There may be polarization in political SPEECH, especially campaign speech, but there is a growing commonality between the parties in how they govern.

It’s a very legit question to ask how much would things really be different over the past 3 years if it was President McCain instead of President Obama.

McCain openly considered picking the same running mate as a democrat, Al Gore did. The leadership of both parties are pretty close together on most things. The Democrats and Obama want bigger government. What did Bush and the Republicans do when they were in power- grow bigger government. Both parties hype their supposed differences in order to mobilize voters, but once the elections are over, they govern in a very similar fashion. The difference is largely in degree, not in direction.

Pax.

 

[BenRosa]

Thing is, when people try to predict the future they generally compare the present with the recent past, identify trends there, then imagine those trends continueing indefinitely into the future

My predictions are not so much based on recent trends as they are on our shared belief that evil will eventually dominate the world before the second coming of our Lord. This is just a road map as to where we might be on this journey considering past trends.

The outcome of the presidential election of 2012 will be a big determinate as to the fulfillment of my time-table (in my humble opinion).

Yes, in response to an earlier question, I am preparing for another story, tentatively titled Control Freaks. It will deal with life during this time frame.

My previous stories are The Prodigal Planet and The Building Of Joe.

God’s peace…
Edward

 

[TheRealJuliane]

I disagree. There may be polarization in political SPEECH, especially campaign speech, but there is a growing commonality between the parties in how they govern.

It’s a very legit question to ask how much would things really be different over the past 3 years if it was President McCain instead of President Obama.

McCain openly considered picking the same running mate as a democrat, Al Gore did. The leadership of both parties are pretty close together on most things. The Democrats and Obama want bigger government. What did Bush and the Republicans do when they were in power- grow bigger government. Both parties hype their supposed differences in order to mobilize voters, but once the elections are over, they govern in a very similar fashion. The difference is largely in degree, not in direction.

Pax.

Except, and it’s a very large exception, that the Republican party does not embrace abortion, euthanasia, gay rights and reproductive technologies.

 

[Prod_Daughter]

How could we someday be arrested for practicing Catholicism? That’s against the 1st amendment.

 

[Nec5]

How could we someday be arrested for practicing Catholicism? That’s against the 1st amendment.

Well, if you do something like discriminate according to your religion (i.e. the British Bed and Breakfast couple that refused a homosexual couple from staying there sharing a room), you could be found in violation.

If Catholic adoption agencies continued to screen out homosexual parents from adopting, then the government could very well arrest/punish the agency involved.

In both cases, practicing your religion gets you in trouble.

 

[BenRosa]

How could we someday be arrested for practicing Catholicism? That’s against the 1st amendment.

How I am seeing this play out is Catholicism’s denial of homosexuality as a viable option as having our faith being labeled “a philosophy of hate” by the courts and become illegal to practice in public. Mind you, this is 30 years from now…however, the stage for this is being set today. It is what is called “the slippy slope”, a gradual gnawing away at our Father’s will.

God’s peace.

 

[Dan_Daly]

How could we someday be arrested for practicing Catholicism? That’s against the 1st amendment.

I’d say at least 80% of what the federal government does now is against something or other in the Constitution. That hasn’t stopped them from doing it.

Searching my house without a warrant is against the 4th ammendment…but under the Patriot Act the government can search my house without a warrant. Same would go for groping by body or viewing me naked without my consent and no suspicion of wrong doing, simply because I want to travel.

That’s just a couple examples. Where you really get to lots of unconstitutional federal activity is when you look at the 10th ammendment. The Federal government has only been authorized very specific powers under the constitution. Anything else, no matter how good an idea it sounds or how popular it is, they aren’t allowed to do with changing the Constitution. Or at least that’s what the law says. It hasn’t stopped the Congress, the Executive, and the Judiciary all from doing as they please and then coming up with a pseudo-legal justification.

Pax.

 

[Holly3278]

I certainly hope it doesn’t come to that. And anyway, even if Catholicism does become an illegal religion, I will still be Catholic and I will still go to Mass, even if I have to do that privately.

 

[BenRosa]

anyway, even if Catholicism does become an illegal religion, I will still be Catholic and I will still go to Mass, even if I have to do that privately.

Yes, most certainly. The story I am pondering will include an underground Church, much like the early church of the first Christians.

Any thoughts as to how might an underground Church be like in modern times?

God’s peace…

 

[Prod_Daughter]

Yes, most certainly. The story I am pondering will include an underground Church, much like the early church of the first Christians.

Any thoughts as to how might an underground Church be like in modern times?

God’s peace…

Probably at peoples homes? Or maybe on privately owned properties?

 

[DaveBj]

Yes, most certainly. The story I am pondering will include an underground Church, much like the early church of the first Christians.

Any thoughts as to how might an underground Church be like in modern times?

God’s peace…

I’ve given this some thought, because I also had an idea for a story set in a future where religion was banned and secularism was the the only allowed line of thought. Any religious activity would have to be seriously underground, and that would be hampered by the fact that I fully expect the erosion of privacy to continue. Some areas of privacy (like medical records - - I don’t expect HIPAA to be repealed any time soon) may continue, but I expect that there will be a society where everyone’s movements will be monitored by cameras; England is well on the way to that.

I can also foresee a society where it would almost be required to act in a secular way and express secular thoughts - - almost like an oath of allegiance. Public grace before a meal, for example would be considered a sign of anti-social (anti-secular) thought.

Seminaries would be banned; any training of clergy would have to be moved underground.

Things could go so far that religious literature would be banned, including Bibles. People’s computers would scanned every time they went “online” (and everyone would be online almost constantly) to make sure that there was no religious literature on whatever was being used as a hard drive. It might be that there are no hard drives; everyone’s local computer would be kept in “the cloud.”

Just getting started…

 

[Catholicpotato]

30 years can be a long or short time. 30 years from 1938-1968 saw a world war and a social revolution. Personally I think we could be pretty much the same. Like 1981- today. But It could get real bad real fast and out of the ashes comes something new. I am amazed at the amount of resposes that think it is possible for us to go down the road we have been going down and have it hold up for 30 more years, just getting progressively progressive. Personally I think the social pendelum will have to swing back shortly or else we are all in trouble. I think within the next 30 years nuclear weapons will have been used several times. Nukes will have been deployed in the middle east and asia as a military strike. nukes will have been used in a terrorist attack on america. Who knows, its all speculation. Perhaps in 30 years we are sitting back saying how everyone thought it was so bad and how silly we all were. Kind of like we look back at those who protested aerosol cans because of the ozone…
I know one thing. There is no one and I mean no one that is telling us it is going to be ok and the world and america will be great again. Sad and scary.

 

[DaveBj]

snip

I know one thing. There is no one and I mean no one that is telling us it is going to be ok and the world and america will be great again. Sad and scary.

Speaking only for myself, that’s because I don’t believe it is going to be ok, and I don’t believe that the the United States of America will be great again, barring the kind of change in our leadership that would make them look like pod people, and barring the discovery of some previously unknown, extremely valuable new natural resource on U.S. territory, something that the rest of the world just has to have.