Freedom's Fool wrote:
> How many have accepted the dismal fate of life and humanity on Earth?
> Does anyone sincerely still have faith that science and technology
will
> save us from suffering and enslavement before an ignominious death?
The Easter Island Syndrome.
A central theme of the Fourth Wave -- sequel to Toffler's Third Wave.
The outline of the Fourth Wave presentation given at the Transvision
2004 is currently at http://www.federation.g3z.com/TV04/00.htm
> The m***** are fools and the rocket scientists and nuclear physicists
> seem morally retarded. I know this isn't an original question, but
> what is expected of the children being born into this world today?
Indeed, that's the very question that underlies the "True Horizon" and
"Lost Horizon" subsections.
The suicide rate ratio male/female, historically around 3:2 has shot up
since the end of the age of exploration (c. 1930) to around 5:1. Not
5:1 in the US. 5:1 ... EVERYWHERE. Every nation with records
indicated by the WHO (possibly except China) now has a lopsided ratio.
It ranges as high as 12:1 in the ex-USSR -- tightly correlating to the
other demographics outlined in the TV04 discussion (male/female ratio
amongst professional workers, male-female life expectancy gap,
male/female college attendance ratio, etc.)
The loss of birthright (go out and seek new horizons) has hit males the
hardest, though it's affecting the human race in its entirety. The
effect of the closing up and the emergence of the claustrophobic form
of cabin fever known as the Easter Island syndrome on females has been
slightly different -- a sudden and dramatic ****ft in the population
curve c. 1975 during which it left the logistic S-curve it had been
following from c. 1850 - c. 1975 (a curve that tops off at around 9
billion) to one which tops off around 7.8 billion. In fact, as of
1989, the population curve has become concave DOWN, satisfying the
identity for all times 1974-2004 (going by the US census bureau
estimates):
P(1989 - t) + P(1989 + t) = 10.59 billion +/- 5 million
Birth rates have dropped through the floor in the past 5 years; and now
there is hardly a nation left where it's over 3% or 4% whereas as late
as the late 1990's there were a substantial number still up at that
level.
All these women ... all their energies devoted to childrearing ...
where has that energy been diverted?
College.
A long-term development going back to the 19th century has been the
steady rise of the female/male ratio for college-level students. It
was headed directly on a trajectory in the US that would have taken it
past the 50-50 point by around 1950 -- until the 30-year rollback
associated with WWII (other demographics also experienced a similar
rollback). It passed by 50-50 in 1980, now around 60-40.
The trend is universal, worldwide. Even Saudi Arabia is around 60-40
now. It's female majority in Iran. Gulf states are around 65-35 to
75-25. Parts of the Caribbean are up to that point (the US Virgin
Islands 75-25). Most of Europe, parts of Southern Africa now, all of
the ex-USSR (substantially so), Australia, New Zealand.
This has led to an overwhelming tide of estrogen swamping not only the
colleges but everything that proceeds from it. In the US, Med Schools
went female majority in 2003; Law Schools in 2004, PhD's in 2004, the
managerial profession in 2004 (and much earlier than that throughout
parts of Europe, as high as 65/35 in Poland in the 1990's for
instance).
Coupled with the loss of direction of the other gender, the combined
effects are devastating. Not only has the male half lost direction,
and lost its birthright with the world closed up and all the horizons
now well-explored with nothing new and no new place left to go, but
they're getting their butts kicked in the world of the professions with
an overwhelming tide (now freed up due to the loss of THEIR traditional
birthright -- childrearing) coming in from all the colleges and
universities.
The result is the de facto emergence of a Glass Floor ... the
counterpart of the Glass Ceiling. But whereas the Ceiling kept out
women from the upper ranks, the Glass Floor is progressively keeping
out males more and more from the entry level. Choke off the supply at
the bottom, and by default in due time, everything from there on up
flips over the other way, once the old (male) guard retires. That's
already occurred in the TV and News industry, in Psychology, in the
Biology fields, it's progressing in Economics, Law, Medicine, and other
fields almost wholesale across the entire professional and business
sector.
Half of the human race (women) have found a new birthright to fill in
for the older one, adapting to the new world.
All of this leads, in a dramatic moment, to the climactic scene in
which the Third Wave Post-Industrial world suddenly reveals its true
identity, tearing off its mask and showing underneath the face of a
woman -- the Third Wave is a woman's world (see
http://www.federation.g3z.com/TV04/07.htm
and afterwards.
The missing element that's led to the loss of direction and loss of
balance is really the central theme of The Fourth Wave and is discussed
in greater depth after the "Why" section in the "How" section. The
Fourth Wave brings back the other half of the balance, curing in the
process, the Easter Island Syndrome and restoring both a birthright and
direction to the remaining half of the human race still in search of a
new one.
In the world of the Fourth Wave, Dodge Ball will no longer be banned.
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