Chapter 111 Chapter 19 Towards a New Millennium 7

7 The author writes all the way, and cannot provide answers for human beings.Can the world solve it.How to solve the problems faced by the end of the millennium, there is no answer here.This book may help us understand what the problems we are facing are and where the conditions for solutions are; but it cannot point out how many of these conditions have already been met, or how much they are in the making.The discussions presented in this book also allow us to understand how little we know, and how poorly the knowledge of those responsible for decision-making in this century (everything that happened in the past, especially in the second half of this century, they have little in advance). known, let alone predicted).Furthermore, it also confirms what many have long suspected: that so-called history—among many other things of greater importance—is the record of human crimes and follies.We can only record, not predict.Prophecy is useless.

So it would be foolish to end this book with predictions.The changes in the earth's crust during the short twentieth century have made things difficult to recognize; the changes that are taking place now will make it even more difficult to untangle.To speculate is nothing more than a fool's dream!Judging from the current situation, it seems that the future is even more bleak than in the 1980s.At this time, the author concludes the long-volume exposition of the historical trilogy of "The Long Nineteenth Century" with the following passage: The world of the 21st century will be a better world; the evidence is there and cannot be ignored.If the world can avoid the stupid act of destroying itself (ie suicide by nuclear war), the percentage of possible realization must be high.

However, although historians are now old and can no longer expect to see a major improvement in the remaining years of their lives, they cannot deny that in time, given the world 25 years or half a century, things may change. There is a possibility of turning around.In any case, the current disintegration of the post-Cold War period is likely to be only a temporary stage-although in the eyes of the world, this period of time seems to have dragged on longer than the collapse and devastation that occurred after two world "hot" wars. long.Neither hope nor fear, however, belongs to the realm of prophecy.We know that although human beings are ignorant and uncertain about the detailed results, behind this opaque cloud, the historical forces that formed the 20th century will continue to develop.The development of capitalism has brought about huge economic and technological changes. This process has become the main theme of the world for the past two or three hundred years.The turbulent world we live in has been uprooted and completely transformed by it.But we are well aware, at least with reason, that this phenomenon cannot continue forever indefinitely; the future is not an infinite continuation of the past.Moreover, various internal and external signs have shown that we have reached a critical moment of a historic crisis.The power generated by the technological economy is now huge enough to destroy the environment, which is the basis of the material world on which human existence depends.Our heritage from the human past has been eroded; the very fabric of society, even some of the social foundations of capitalist economies, is thus at a critical turning point of destruction.Our world is in danger of exploding from the outside as well as detonating from within.It has to change.

We don't know where we are going.We only know that history has brought the world to this threshold, and why we have reached it—if the reader agrees with the arguments in this book.However, one thing is fairly simple.If human beings want to have a clearly visible future, they will never achieve it by relying on the continuation of the past or the present.If we try to build a new millennium on the ruins of this old foundation, we are bound to fail.The price of failure, that is, human society will be dark if it does not change much.