My view of the current state of affairs (in America particularly, but also in the rest of the world) is that we are on a perpetual feedback loop that can only go in one direction, and will always accelerate. People will always have to work harder and harder to achieve the same level of livelihood. Just getting by is so stressful, that all they want is to do shut off when they get home and turn on the brain sucking box. So many work so hard, so that their children can have a mediocre education in the wealthiest nation on Earth, while the precious few get to reap the benefits of the hard work of the masses, push some paper around, make some phone calls, and take home millions. They send their kids to the best schools, and the cycle continues. It's volunteered slavery, and as the emerging markets begin to compete for the finite resources, it can only get worse. In the shrinking middle class (college educated or professionals of some kind), hyper-specialization has created a populous that is unable to see big picture, or recognize the interconnectedness of all things. We're solely focused on our fields of expertise and can't see that we as individual have many common interests that we could work towards that would be beneficial for all.
The thing I see missing most from the modern mind though is curiosity. There seems to be a serious lack of interest by the mainstream in anything outside their worlds. Modern man affiliates themselves with a few groups and pursues only the topics and activities that fit in with the persona they've identified themselves with. i.e.- republicans or democrats, nascar fan or basketball fan, good at math or good at art, hippie or square, etc...
In the hopelessness of the present culture, I see great possibility. How long can it be before others begin to see the ridiculousness of our dog eat dog way of life. Factory farming, oil economies, boom and bust cycles, unstable currencies, most of the ways in which society currently functions cannot and will not be sustained. And, there won't be much of an argument to do so. There are alternative ways of life that are happier and more natural, and my hope is that we can create examples now so that people can decide for themselves what kind of future they want once they know they have a choice in the matter.
The new renaissance would hopefully involve a major shift away from distrust, suspicion, and ruthlessness toward openness, trust, and altruism. People will procure as many practical skills as possible and take an interest in as many fields as possible instead of pigeonholing themselves into one occupation or trade. A life in which money becomes a luxury and not a necessity. A world focused on the maximization of contentment individually and in society as a whole. And most importantly working with nature to achieve our goals and not against. Promising developments have been popping up for quite some time - the open source movement, couchsurfing.com, ecovillages and the permaculture movement, the TED talks, etc.
My grudge is not with working hard, it's all I've ever done. Nor is it with the wealthy, to me they seem just as likely to be miserable as the rest of us.
It's the lack of curiosity and interest in improving the way in which humans interact with each other and with their environment. Why can't we demand that of ourselves and our leaders?
