Senator Bernie Sanders in Santa Cruz, CA 5/31/16. Photo cred Jillian Chelson
This week I had the honor of attending a small and intimate
Bernie Sanders rally in Santa Cruz, California. I was impressed to say the least.
Bernie is every bit as inspiring in person as he appears in his advertisements.
And while his nomination from the Democratic Party still seems like a longshot,
given the super delegate phenomenon, winning California is key to the longevity
of his progressive movement.
“As
goes California, so goes the nation.” We’re the western edge of
civilization. I’ve lived here now for nine years and I must say, there’s no
place else like it in the entire country. California is leading the way on
environmental stewardship, health care, film, music, entertainment and of
course, technology. Silicon Valley is where the future is born. With the California Primary in only a few
days, I thought it was important to re-print an article I wrote a few weeks ago
about why futurists should consider Bernie Sanders for president.
Futurists are often seen as Libertarian or Republican, but
many of those I’ve met here in California seem to also be quite progressive.
They care about technology as well as the health of the planet. They want to
automate our lives, but are concerned about technological unemployment and seek
alternative monetary systems such as universal basic income.
California is filled
with people with an eye to the future, and it’s to them that I now write my
plea—next week you’ll have a choice, Hillary or Bernie. Which will you choose?
Government’s job is
to protect the people. Most think that only means foreign policy. But to this
I’d add investing in the infrastructure that enables our society to thrive and
navigate the huge economic changes of the Information Age. For make no mistake,
what domestic policies we chose to implement right now will determine what type
of digital world we live in. One in which all of our society benefits from the
technological advancements, or one in which only a few hold all the keys and
the rest are left to fend for themselves. Because
like it or not, while the rest of America is fighting about gays, abortion,
guns and nationalism, technology is progressing and trust me, none of those
things will matter one bit in the next evolution of humanity.
After looking at all the candidates, I came to a surprising
conclusion—that an old socialist from Vermont is actually the best candidate at
this point in time when it comes to furthering our advancement as a technological
society. He might not even understand half of what’s happening in Silicon
Valley or NASA, but his platform contains some important things for all
futurists to consider. And yes, many futurists do make more than $250,000 a
year, so they might not like to hear what Bernie has to say. But before you
vote merely to keep your taxes lower, please, if you care at all about the
technological advancement of our world, consider Bernie for the following three
reasons.
1. Bernie is against nuclear war and for reduced
military spending
We
are now at the point that technically, we could annihilate this planet. That
we haven’t yet is miraculous. We are officially our own greatest threat.
Nuclear disarmament is more important than ever, as well as the reigning in of
military spending and investment in artificially intelligent drones and
soldier-robots. In his article in Politico Magazine, Lawrence Hobbs says this
about Bernie, “Twenty-five years after the Cold War, there is…no need to spend
a trillion dollars to modernize our nuclear arsenal, and Sanders has even
pledged to cut $100 billion in nuclear spending over the next decade. Instead
the United States should ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which Sanders
told me he would push for, in order to ban all nuclear explosions in all
environments, for both military and civilian purposes.”
Read more:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/bernie-sanders-foreign-poicy-213619#ixzz3zzqITgiZ
As a very practical man reminded me on FB
thread, “Avoiding nuclear war is the most important thing we can vote for.” I’d
also add that reducing the amount of money spent by our government on all technologies
of destruction is a part of that. Bernie is absolutely for both of these
things.
2.
Bernie is for universal health care, inexpensive
higher education and has even said that a universal basic income is something
to consider
If
all our citizens have access to health care and education as well as a basic
income for food and shelter, then our technology is freed from the economic
constraints that currently hold it back. Why are we still using dirty coal?
Because of jobs. Those in the industry won’t let go because they can’t care for
their families without their income. This is but one example. But imagine if
they didn’t have to fear. If instead when one technology makes an older one
obsolete, the worker won’t starve or end up on the street, but instead will
continue to live and have care and be able to afford to go back to school and
retrain to the new technology? What a different world it would be if when a
life-saving technology is invented, all can have access to it because our
health care system works in our favor, not for profits. Any technically advanced society would use its ingenuity to solve the
problems of homelessness, hunger and health, and Bernie’s policies can be seen
as a path in this direction. It will take a lot of hard work for us to move
from our profit-driven economics to one where technology is used to provide the
most basic needs to all of us at the least cost, but the time to start is now
and Bernie’s campaign is forcing us to begin the discussion.
Why would a futurist care at all that
everyone is provided for? Because technology is intimately linked to a
work-less future—one in which automation will eliminate millions of jobs, with
nothing new to replace them. This means an unemployment rate never seen before.
To me, it’s a matter of national
security that we ensure ALL our citizens are cared for and that our humanity is
sacred and worthy of such an investment. Too many unemployed and
impoverished people, and America spirals into third world status. Bob Marley
put it so well, “A hungry man is an angry man.” Within thirty years we will
either have a plethora of hungry, angry men, or we’ll have the infrastructure
in place to ensure health care, food, housing and education for all. I’d rather remain a first world country
than resist helping one another.
3.
Bernie is not affiliated with religion
This is pretty huge. There’s never been a
real contender for the American presidency who wasn’t affiliated with
Christianity. I want to be clear, I’m not an atheist and do have a spiritual
practice, but I also believe that organized religion is behind many of the dire
issues we face in our world. Most wars are fought with a belief that we are agents
of God cleaning up civilization. Apocalypse politics are practiced both within
US foreign policy as well as within terrorist groups such as ISIS.
In addition, religious fundamentalism is generally
against technology. Scientists
throughout the centuries have been silenced by those whose Gods don’t approve
of their findings. This is a problem that we can no longer afford to tolerate. Humanity
can and will destroy the planet if it continues to operate under the concept of
Divine Manifestation. The separation of church and state ensures liberty
for all. The freedom to practice a religious devotion of your choice without
fear of being burned at the stake. The freedom to practice family planning and
birth control (if you’re a woman). The freedom to pursue science, not with wild
evil abandonment, but with rational, moral and logical eyes and without the
fear of oh, yes, being burned at the stake. That our leaders still have to pass
some Christian God litmus test should no longer be happening in the 21st
century.
A technically advanced society hasn’t lost their wonder and awe with nature, the cosmos or even
the divine, but they have lost their need for religious dogma that controls their
lives and tells them how to live.
I know, Bernie isn’t perfect and I wish he
would have run as a third party and not within the corrupt binary primary
system. But for futurists, he’s actually a very good choice. He’s the only
candidate who has respect for the harm and destruction of the military
industrial complex as well as organized religion in our world. Combined with
his desire to use our technology to wisely care for all of us with regards to
education and health care, I think he’s the one to help us take the next steps
in excellence. This is not creating a nanny state—rather Bernie’s policies help
us prepare for that time when our technology takes us into the post-work
future. If we ignore these very important issues, we do so at our own peril.