Predictions for 2012

As someone who has a background in the prediction of human behavior, I am often asked for my predictions on various things.  With that thought in mind, I share a few of my predictions for 2012.

Politics

In an effort to save time and money, the Oscars and the Federal election will be moved to the same date so that all actors can be rewarded at the same time.

Julian Assange will be appointed as an election consultant to both the GOP and the Democrats.  To level the playing field, he will reveal their innermost secrets and ideas to the world and the American people will be so afraid that they will demand that government be dissolved for fear of what could happen next as a result of either party getting elected.

In response to this event, Hollywood will rise to the occasion and create a fictitious character who embodies the perfect ideals of a President.  This fictitious, computer-generated character will win the next Federal election in a landslide but will not be able to take office when a hard-drive that wasn’t backed up fails in an unexplained fashion.

Space Exploration

The Chinese government, in an effort to escalate its space program and in particular, its moon-landing program, will discover that advances in the program can be achieved much faster when human safety is reduced in priority.  Rumors of a 40-mile long slingshot will continue to be played down as the year develops.

Alien beings from the planet Erewhon will land on the White House lawn and offer us the solutions to world hunger, disease, pestilence, warfare and everything else that dogs mankind.  In a gesture of galactic peace and gratitude, we will nuke their starships and congratulate ourselves on having avoided a potentially catastrophic advancement in human culture.

Environment

It will be revealed that Al Gore’s original title for his work on the environment was going to be “A Convenient Way to Make a Billion Dollars”.  When told that such a title would raise eyebrows and could possibly become “an inconvenient truth”, an idea was born.

Despite fears of a pending oil shortage, we will finally admit by year’s end that the greatest resource shortage we have in the world are qualified people who care and are in a position to make a difference in regards to the challenges we face in the world.  In order to hide the truth, those in power will continue to redirect the public’s attention to other resource issues.  Wars with no discernable purpose or measurable outcomes are particularly useful in situations such as this.

Mysticism

A tablet will be found in an ancient Mayan archeological dig that will later be translated to read "Fun Things To Do With Calendars and Other Practical Jokes".

Also contained within the same tablet will be a short piece that describes how to pretend how you have achieved success in all areas of your life when you haven’t and how you can make money selling this “Secret” to others.

But seriously …..

I’m just having some fun, of course.

But there are a lot of things that are equally easy to predict.

Our financial crisis will continue to worsen, despite the assurances of politicians who are trying to project a sense that everything is under control.  This is important to politicians so that everything doesn’t come apart – at least on their watch.  Our current challenges, many of which have been brought about by uncontrolled spending have been solved by … yup … more uncontrolled spending.

More than 24,000 children under the age of 5 will continue to die daily from tainted water, a problem easily solved but a problem that doesn’t have enough pizazz to be worthy of tackling.

But it’s not all bad …..

Also equally easy to predict …. people from many walks of life will continue to dedicate their lives to improving the lives of others and to improving the state of the planet-at-large.

However, unless we all step up and help these dedicated, heart-filled people to make a positive impact on the planet, then in fact, there won’t be much new and noteworthy for 2012.

Yes, we will have new versions of iPads that can read our minds, some new electric cars that may or may not burst into flames when using them, airport scanners that can identify what we ate for breakfast (and potentially reject us as a hazardous flatulence threat) and the Cleveland Browns will win the Super Bowl. 

Every set of predictions has to have an outlandish claim mixed in somewhere, right? Can you tell which one is outlandish?

But much of the world will be same-old, same-old.  The wealthy will get wealthier, the poor will be left even further behind, many corporations will continue to flaunt morals, ethics and even the legal system to improve their bottom line, we will continue to not hold politicians accountable for their actions or results and another year of opportunity to make a difference for others will have passed us by.

And yes … that new exercise video that you bought to revamp your life forever will more-than-likely find its way into the recycle bin by April.

I’m not one of those uber optimists who believes we can save everyone.

But I do believe we can do much better in 2012 to help those in need and to demand better results from those who keep promising them.

What do you think?

Wishing you a prosperous, impact-filled 2012.

In service and servanthood,

Harry