Let’s face it, by the time change has happened it is already on the road to obsolescence. The pace of change is kinda like skywriting. That is what this post is all about.

All the futurists I follow agree on one thing and that is that this decade will be pivotal and likely to be remembered as a launching pad for a very different future. Change will come at such an astonishing pace that it will be difficult for even those such as I who embrace change. I base this and my next post on a post from my friends over at Reimagining The Future.

I am convinced that if we can keep the naysayers, and the extremely change averse at bay that life will be significantly better at the end of the 2020s. I can only hope that I am around to enjoy it.

Things are rapidly changing in many different realms.

• Societal Factors
• GeoPolitics
• Technology
• A Shift of What Is Important

Which of these areas will be the most significant contributor to the future? I kind of believe that each will reinforce the other. I am not naive to the fact that there are those out there who will adamantly resist these changes, maybe even to the point of violence. So, it will be up to those of us who look to better future to enable it to happen.

On the space I have left on this post, let’s look at some to the societal things that are now beginning to shape our future.

Social Change

In this decade about 800 million people worldwide will join the over-65 economy. The world’s economies will have to adjust to this fact. Healthcare will have to move to the forefront as well as pension reform. In the western world the pension deficit is almost $25 trillion. Something will have to be done to ameliorate that fact, as it is just not sustainable as it is presently configured.

In past history, generational change has lead to social disruptions. The fact that Generation Z – those born after 2000- will likely cause more change in society than almost any other generation. They will account for more than 20% of the world’s population by the end of this decade, so they will likely speak with a power not seen since we baby boomers were their age.

Generations Z is into sustainability and services rather than consumerism. They, like Greta Thunberg, who is a member of Gen Z, are ready to take the lead in fixing the problems that my generation caused or at best ignored.

GeoPolitics

Being a history buff, the similarity between these political times and the 1920s is unmistakable. Will this decade end as the one a century before did? History does have a way of repeating itself. The similarity to the 1920s is obvious. Does the prosperity of a few of us lead to a multi-year depression? Does the US go the way of Germany almost a century ago. The similarities between Trump’s actions and Hitler’s is eerie!

This decades’ geopolitics will likely chart the course for the foreseeable decades.

The speed of change sets up an overwhelming number of future scenarios. As my source mentioned, the decade will see a creative burst in new mechanisms for growth. That is, if the four factors above create the environment for them to do so…

More on that in tomorrow’s post.