Читать книгу The State of the World Atlas [ff] - Dan Smith - Страница 20

It is no new thought, however, to wonder how long this growth of output and

consumption can be sustained, to question what may happen as the emerging

economies of China, India, Brazil, and other countries, with increasing

economic growth in Africa and many parts of Asia, successfully produce and

consume ever-increasing amounts of everything, just as we have done in

Europe, North America, and Japan.

This growth in production both owes much to, and has fed, the extraordinary

growth in human knowledge over the past 200 years – as, indeed, does the

underlying population growth because of the improvements in public health

that have made it possible. Whether knowledge generates wisdom is, as

we all know, questionable. But if we are seeking to compare ourselves to

the past in the effort to understand who we are today, one thing is that we

are better educated. We know more and, despite the way it may seem, we

understand more.

Among other knowledge, we know more about each other than ever before.

There is more travel and more communication, leading to more encounters

and more information. As we encounter each other, we see our diversity – of

background, race, ethnicity, belief – and how we handle that diversity will

have much to say about whether we will in the end be able to rise successfully

to the great challenges we face today. It is possible to see every day how the

encounter between people and groups of diverse backgrounds can be on the

one hand a benefit – a source of interest, pleasure, or mutual gain – or on the

other hand a source of danger and potential loss – of jobs, fellow-feeling in

the community, or security.

It is paradoxical how we are divided and united by our needs. Because so

many of our needs are the same, there is a risk of clashing over our attempts

to meet them. And when there is a possibility of clashing and sides get

chosen, we are more likely to choose the side that looks, sounds, feels, and

thinks like us. Perhaps if our needs were as diverse as we are, they would

mesh and be complementary.

Especially when communities are under pressure, the need to band together

against the outsider gets stronger. The multiple sources of change in today’s

world are a constant source of pressure and thus of danger. Those who

once sought world government based on the recognition of all that we have

in common are destined for disappointment. We have chosen instead to

be divided, creating more and more independent countries and following

different faiths.

Yet there is also plenty of evidence that different ethnicity and faith do not

prevent people living together peacefully. As more of us cram into cities,

bringing our different traditions and social norms into close proximity, being

able to draw on that part of humanity’s experience will become more and

more important.

19