THE WORLD IN THE 21ST CENTURY

We may be wondering what arsenals are in store for the

remaining nine decades of the 21st century after the momentous
and suspenseful events along the passage of the 20th century and
later that mangled the quiet facade of the Earth. Life as a stream of
endless processes, catenated by the cardinal rule of cause and
effect, may open up a vista for us to infer what the world will be in
the 21st century.

Taking clues from the loose ends of the 20th century and the
first decade of the 21 century, and realizing that everything moves
in circle and ipso facto every practice and every idea has its own ups
and downs in circular motion along the course of time, helps to
deduce the possible structure of the 21st century on and around
certain fixed pillar posts vacated by the 20th century in its haste to
give way to the 21st century.

As the dusk of the 20th century and the nascent ness of the first
decade of the 21 century give way to the maturity of the 21st
century, new political alignments may emerge to replace senescent
superpowers that ruled the roost in international politics. The trend
in world politics would be the coalescence of regional powers to
harness maximum financial strength. The politics of the ideological
conflicts of the 20th century may give way to the politics of
pragmatic dispensation. National affiliations may lose their fervor
and each regional alliance of nations may develop into a loose,
federal government as the century draws to its end. A more liberal
and universal outlook with the progressive intermingling of cultures
would be the hallmark of the 21st century. The world probably may
awake to a world-culture with all divergent nuances of the current
world being absorbed into a mainstream culture in the new century.

The 21st century shall be known by future generations for the

growth and universal acceptance of an open market economy and a
combative economic spirit. The last decade of the 21st century may
find the laissez-aller in economy touching its ultima thule and
concomitantly its breaking point except for a few scattered pockets
still clinging to a controlled economy as remnants of yore, which will
work as a springboard in subsequent centuries to move the world
back to a modified guided economy.

Another significant development of the new era would be the

upsurge of economics in the new order of things to mark the century
as "The Economic Age'. The present national and ideological divide
would be replaced with a new economic divide leading to a
regrouping of regions by economic convenience. The concept of the
European Economic Community of the 20th century will lead to
similar economic groupings in East Europe allied with Germany,
Central Asia, South-East Asia, South Asia, West Asia, South America,
North Africa, South and Central Africa and finally North America to
create distinct economic zones along the passage of the 21st
century with more and more power and authority transferred to
these new units to control and govern the social life of the people.
National identities would be relegated to oblivion as a thing of the
past by the end of the 21st century with the world divided into a
handful of distinct and well-defined economic units, each of which
will strive towards the telos of economic prosperity and increased
self-sufficiency. However, increased concours between the new
economic units could bring tension back to the world in the later part
of the century, leading to the failure of this new concept of living on
this Earth and return to good old nationhood in later centuries.

Germany, as the leader of a power in the region consisting

mostly of the present Warsaw Pact countries may provide a real
challenge to the financial strength of China and its neighboring allies
in the first half of the 21 century and grow to be a financial giant of
the world in the second half of the century by pushing the latter to
second place. A close run for supremacy as a financial power of the
world between regional powers led by Germany and China would be
the main political drama of the new era. Both USA and Russia would
be decimated to minor parts in the battle-royale.

The 21st century may see impressive breakthroughs in

unconventional energy sources like nuclear energy, solar energy and
oceanic energy, which may cheaply meet the major share of the
world's energy needs by the end of the 21st century. This may
reduce the importance of oil-rich countries in world politics and add
to the relative peace of the coming century.

The new century may see nuclear energy becoming the staple
energy source for motor transport and aviation. There would be
major breakthroughs in harnessing and using solar energy. All
anxieties about depletion of energy sources would b laid to rest in
the 21st century. The new era may find people going for artificial
nutritious foods produced from cheap edible plastic chemicals. This
would lessen the dependence on agricultural produce and provide a
permanent solution to the problem of hunger. Major breakthroughs
in recycling of waste may provide the solution to shortages and
ecological contamination. The 21st century is unlikely to make any
 tangible headway in space and interplanetary research due to the
factors involving time and distance and the changing circumstances
that may localize issues to the world we live in and ipso facto control
the passion to explore outer space.

The real scientific leap of the 21st century would be the

discovery of normal temperature superconductors and their universal
applications to the fields of mobility, communication and energy that
could revolutionize life on this Earth by obliterating the notion of
distance from its face. Man may travel at speeds very close to that of
light by the end of the century. He would then be able to control things
anywhere on this Earth by sitting in his place and monitoring audio-
visual feedbacks. Some advancement by the end of the century in the
ability to penetrate to the past cannot be ruled out either.

A positive outcome of the new concept of living in regional

economic groupings would be the increased realization of the futility
of wars and military expenditure. The new age may spawn hope for
sempiternal peace and prosperity, with the aggressive side of the
human psyche being increasingly engaged by the ceaseless
demands of the free market economy. The 21st century may witness
a spurt in the general standard of living, brought about by the
deployment of resources hitherto utilized only for military research
and expenditure.

The greatest blessing of the 21st century would be the

conspicuous reduction in international strife and concomitant
military expenditure while the worst feature would be the reduction
of man and his environment to an average profile deprived of all
interests and curiosities. He and his environment may become more
fragile inside and outside as unending technological advancements
increasingly take over the fields of his exclusive skills and
competence and ipso facto condemn them to wither away by
desuetude. The 21st century may be the beginning of this withering
process of human skills in a telling way. Life would be less
interesting – though more convenient - in the 21st century, which
could cause more and more people to turn to religion and occult
practice for solace and adventure.

Computers may become integral to all human activity thus

leading to decline in human skill and intellectual ability as the
century advances. The menaces of terrorism and drug-addiction may
further grow to be the major challenges of the 21st century. The
increasing complexity of day-to-day living traversed with poverty
and an unabated population explosion may encourage new,
unheard-of forms of crime. New complex diseases may surface on
the Earth to attack the populace from time to time and keep the
medical research establishment continuously engaged to meet the
challenges. Life's concomitant stress may spawn agitated, nervous
frustrated and directionless minds. Family units would be in disarray
with the institution of marriage in red and a new concept of an open
society with guaranteed institutional security coming into vogue.

The new century may witness more and more people turning to
religion for inner peace. As both Christianity and Islam fail to meet
the growing spiritual needs of the plebeians of the 21st century, the
world may look for solace to a nebulous international religion of a
mixed kind with a common spiritual interpretation of life and this
religion may sweep the Earth of the 21st century to become its
major religion. The new age may also find proliferation of scientific
research in parapsychology and the universal application of its
findings to control crime and improve labour relations in industry
and commercial enterprises.

The new century may see the concepts of family and marriage
losing their relevance to life. Each to himself would be the new
dispensation, and state security to newborns, the old and infirm
would become the basic responsibility of the state machinery. With
the increased demand on limited land, due to the progressive rise in
the population, the 21st century may find all lands becoming
government property, leased out to private parties on contract for a
definite period for use: though laissez-faire with private ownerships
in other enterprises would be the tendency in the 21st century
economy. Public undertakings may become a rarity in the new age.
Private firms on contract would be permitted to manage selected
jobs in the governance of the country. Such sensitive areas as
development activities, recruitment, crime investigation, collection
of taxes etc would be handled by specialized private firms on a time-
bound contract as the century draws to an end. The turn of the 21st
century may see only the legislature and judiciary remaining the
government's direct responsibility with executive jobs being
increasingly handled on its behalf by private agencies.

The new century may witness an upsurge of romanticism in

literature and life fuelled by a new ferocity that spurns any
constraint on natural conduct; free sex may well become the rule.
This new popular movement would spread across the world in the
new century, adding spice to growingly insipid lifestyles. New
philosophies and religions may spring out of it to alter intellectual
and spiritual perceptions.
 While the new world will have advanced amenities at its beck
and call, simple natural needs like adequate space, clean water and
fresh air will become rarities. Piped water supply would be a matter
of the past and clean water would be sold in bottles in markets. The
new age may also see special fresh-air sessions everyday for half-
an-hour: a luxury of breathing fresh air, produced by special
treatments in a costly process affordable only to the rich. The selling
of small fresh-air packets for use in private may become a lucrative
business throughout the world and multi-national corporations may
make huge investments in both fresh-air packet and clean water
bottle industries.

Life would be a more complex and costly affair in the 21st century in
spite of man's increasing success in bringing the world to his heels
through inventions and discoveries. Birth control on demand would be
a normal practice. Speed and detached impatience would become the
spirit and trend of the age, with passions, emotions, moods, tastes,
arts and pleasures becoming rare luxuries, known to a few isolated
deviates. Living would be reduced to a cutthroat competition with the
conflict between man and his poisoned environment compounded with
that between him and his fellow men turning extra modum in his fight
and flight for survival. The simple innocent side of his nature would
become a further casualty in the process with increased manifestations
of criminal tendency at all levels in all fields. Life would thus become
less secure and more risky in the new dispensation.

The world would be less worth for living in the 21st century in spite
of its technical and material advancements. Though the threat of war
would recede in the new age, life's acceleration to the highly
competitive tempo, necessary to ensure survival, may render living a
sick and uneasy affair. As man bends nature to his convenience,
nature's failures to meet his basic needs may balloon up to gigantic
proportions by the increased tax on her fragile attributions. Yet, it
should be remembered that the 21st century is just a minute phase in
the huge evolution process that takes the world to higher levels of
existence through restless and difficile passage.

We should know that this world is a great self-sustaining system,

built to survive all ecological, nuclear or population disasters. The life
system of this Earth is a wonderful self-regulating workhouse with a
skill for survival. We must rest assured that the Earth will certainly
survive all contingencies of the 21st century by its wonderful self-
regulating and self-sustaining mechanism that was at work in the 20th
century.