The facts remain that notwithstanding all the great science
and all the great innovations only a minority of our
fellow human beings are benefiting.

Yet we can be optimistic. If we, the middle class can have
the life-saving and life-rewarding tools of modernity, so can
everyone as long as there are not too many of us.

This is a fundamental caveat. The planet we have come to
inhabit is very small. The experts who measure human demands on
the planet suggest if - by some miracle of economics we everyone
living today can have a middle-class lifestyle, we would need
immediately two or three planet earths.

Humans do have the intelligence , the tools, and the natural
resources to provide for a good sustainable life as long as
there are not so many humans that we exceed the globe's
carrying capacity.

All the evidence suggests that we must turn around population
growth and aim for a much smaller population than we have today.

after the second world war, US and Western allies dominated.

With the loss of manufacturing, our decline was offset by greater trade and the promotion of services fuelled by higher and higher debt levels.

But now the ammunition is largely spent.

The end result is that Western leaders today have few real ideas how to adapt. More of the same is their motto, although the push towards greener energy is interesting.

While I am hardly a conservative, and detested Trump (apart from his China stance), I think some of the concerns evident amongst the right around the world can influence change that will help the West survive.

I think we will get the balance right, assuming the left and right can find common ground.

Here I am mainly talking economic survival.

As for many of the social gains in recent decades, I am generally in agreement albeit they cost a pretty penny and have to be paid for.

And the values of the West, pluralism ad the rule of law, are self-evident against authoritarian evil.

I hope that makes some sense.

Thank You Chris.

It makes a great deal of sense.

Chris,

A lot of 'you think' but not much substance. You are basically a good, well meaning bloke, but rather hopeful and naive. Your final sentence points to your naivety:

"And the values of the West, pluralism ad (sic) the rule of law, are self-evident against authoritarian evil".

It is "self-evident", even in our own country, that Western values are wilting in the face of "authoritarian evil". We have lost so many freedoms, very suddenly, over a bug that has a mild effect on people under 70, and kills only some people at the average life expectancy for Australians. We now have enormous pressure for an unconstitutional requirement for compulsory vaccination in non-medical, non-carer jobs, even though the vaccinated can transmit the disease as easily as the unvaccinated. We are gradually being pushed into carrying certification that we are vaccinated. We are being lumbered with increasing costs of energy, housing, food etc in the name of climate change and the rich who want to be richer, even if it means the loss of democracy. We still cannot travel as freely as we should be able to in our own country.

If you take any notice at all of world events, you will know that suggestions and rumblings of extending this fascism into other areas of our lives abound.

Politicians and unelected bureaucrats have never had such control over us. They are about to decide what is religious faith and what is not from a base, in many cases, of no faith of their own, or straight out atheism, thus violating the separation of religion and state. They do not listen to us at all. One example being the news about a return to the of the highest mass immigration in the world, despite Australians' opposition. A poll yesterday shows that only 20% want a return to pre-Covid immigration levels; 7% want an increase, and 58% want a resumption of immigration at much lower levels. My money is on at least the same as before, with a likely increase, despite what Australians think.

I'm sorry to say, Chris, that it is gullible people like you who are the cause of the crisis in Western civilisation; and, the thing is, it's people like you and younger who will suffer. Not us old conservatives who know history.

OK ttbn, sorry you think I am gullible and naive.

You could be right.

But, while your mates were ignoring reality about China and our our reliance of trade with that country, it was naive me that predicted the folly of such a strategy and that the US will rise and resist.

I don't remember anyone at Sky, Quadrant or other right wing forums saying much.

But they do now because they have woken up.