Media Habits

I watch three news programs religiously.

• Countdown with Keith Olbermann
• The Rachel Maddow Show
• Anderson Cooper 360°

I also listen to NPR obsessively.

And I admit to reading a metric crapton of blogs, too numerous to list here...

That being said, I am going to talk about my NPR habits.

When I am home, and not watching one of the aforementioned news programs, I am listening to my local NPR affiliate (WAMC), I also grab the podcasts of Fresh Air and a couple of other shows (TAL being the one I am addicted to...something about aging hipsters who think that every day life is interesting)...every morning, my alarm goes off at 5:30 and I listen (half in and out of sleep) to Morning Edition. Every so often, there is a story that stays with me, dominating my conscious mind...

This morning, one of those stories came to the fore...

Analysts: By 2025, U.S. Won't Be Top World Power

I am amazed by stories like these...maybe it is my love of speculative fiction...and it forces me to do things, like follow-up and read the report that they are talking about.

Some of the things that are mentioned in the report (and the story on Morning Edition):

• The whole international system—as constructed following WWII—will be revolutionized. Not only will new players—Brazil, Russia, India and China— have a seat at the international high table, they will bring new stakes and rules of the game.
• The unprecedented transfer of wealth roughly from West to East now under way will continue for the foreseeable future.
• Unprecedented economic growth, coupled with 1.5 billion more people, will put pressure on resources—particularly energy, food, and water—raising the specter of scarcities emerging as demand outstrips supply.
• The potential for conflict will increase owing partly to political turbulence in parts of the greater Middle East.

And from the story on Morning Edition:

Among the more startling conclusions in the Global Trends 2025 report is a judgment that an unnamed government in Eastern or Central Europe "could effectively be taken over and run by organized crime." The report also speculates that some states in Africa or South Asia could "wither away" as a result of the failure of their governments to provide basic services to the population.

It's a brave new dystopian world.