As someone with an interest in worldview questions, and especially interested in the difference between those whose thinking is only short-term and tactical versus those whose long-term strategic planning is paramount, the question of why certain cultures appear to be more presentist than others, and the alarming trend of my own culture in becoming more presentist are matters that interest me.  In looking at the students we have, it is pretty clear that most of them (there are exceptions) don’t appear to be long-term thinkers.  Those who are more ambitious, I have a great deal of respect for, as ambition can be channelled, can be honed, can be fed.  But those without drive and ambition, it is hard to poke and prod them to improve, and I’m not someone who likes to nag.

In looking at the larger picture of which peoples are likely to have more future planning, one has to think about difference between predator and prey.  Imperialistic nations (for all of their flaws) are also nations with future plans.  Empires almost never appeal to short-term thinkers unless one is merely interested in loot.  The appeal of empires is usually in the long-term, with ambitions for finding sources of raw materials as well as captive markets (literally) for one’s manufacturing goods, and strategic points like passes and straits to control and keep away from one’s rivals and enemies.  Such predatory behavior encourages a cost/benefit analysis as well as a concern for the long term.  On the other hand, nations that are “prey” are usually not as interested in the long-term.  Whether we are talking about the proletariat of Rome demanding bread and circus or the plantation owner not caring about the future of his lands but working his slaves to the bone and killing his land with cash crops because he needs to finance his lavish living (being prey to the merchants, after all), prey thinks in a short-term tactical way, while predators think with a very long time horizon.

What is the importance of this?  For one, we need to avoid thinking that the wealthy are necessarily the predators or that the poor are necessarily the prey.  This is not so.  Worldview is not the result of one’s wealth and power, but often the source of such power.  A person who is grasping and driven and ambitious may often start out with little and end up with much.  This is blameworthy or praiseworthy not based on how much they obtain but on how they went about it.  If someone gains their wealth by creating useful inventions or developing useful services, I will not begrudge them in the least.  If they do so through corruption and chicanery, then they will receive their just reward.  It is not the wealth of people (or their lack thereof) that gives them moral worth (or not), but one must dig deeper.

We might say that worldview is a good way to examine the future trajectory of someone, rather than a determination of where they are.  It is a measure of velocity rather than position.  Someone or some institution with a great deal of wealth and power whose thoughts are directed merely towards quarterly results or the next paycheck or the next harvest in one’s plantation are thinking like prey, with limited time horizons.  Though they may be ‘predatory’, like the stray cats who slink away from people and look to scavenge food, they are thinking like prey, like the hunted and not the hunter.  And the same is true in reverse.

The hard part is helping people (or helping yourself, even) ensure that you are able to have enough reserves and enough coming in so that present concerns of “survival” do not overwhelm one’s long-term goals.  The moment one’s time horizon shrinks down as a result of a lack of resources, one has ceased to become the predator and has become the prey, the prey of doubt, of worry, of anxiety, and of lack, and quite probably the prey of those who take advantage of that.  I’ve been there (unwillingly) often enough to know it’s nowhere I want to be, or remain.  Getting out is hard, but at least knowing that one is in an unacceptable spot is enough to at last look for potential ways out.

My concern, in the worldview scheme of matters, is that the constant and ceaseless mood of crisis inhibits people from thinking at all about the long term in the constant rush to fight fires and deal with short term present concerns without a great deal of time and energy and focus spent to longer term goals that might help avoid future crises.  Clearly, no one is perfect at these matters (certainly I’m not), but while admitting I can do a lot better, I see a lot of people and institutions that don’t appear to be doing anything at all, which makes it harder for the rest of us that are trying to do something more than simply bail out water in sinking ships or rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic.  It does seem as if there is a society-wide, and even civilization-wide, shortage of strategic thinking, of long-term goals, in the rush of short term pleasure and comfort.  That’s simply not good enough to last.  We can, and should, do much better than that, but we’re going to need plenty of help, as none of us can do it on our own, even with all of our wits about us.