A science fiction view

For vegans we see a hugely ugly world of animal abuse everywhere we go, we smell the cremated remains of once-living animals from every kitchen window we pass. We run the gauntlet in the supermarket between racks of meat and shelves full of animal by-products. But beyond kitchens and shops there’s another, more optimistic reality. This reality shows potential for change. It lets us see things from another perspective as our best chance to save this frightened planet.
Mind over matter. We all create our reality. Especially we get what we want when we do things co-operatively. Together … ah! But how do we get agreement?
What we see is (approximately) what we get. If we see ugly we’ll get ugly. If we see ugly our mood is gloomy. If we’re negative about the ‘future of humanity’, the planet, etc., we’re doomed. The future awaits us.
Science fiction has a lot to say about the future. We’re entertained by it but that’s all. It doesn’t actually help us ‘get to’ the future. Nor does it say anything about the ‘humanity of humans’-to-come. The emphasis is nearly always on the cruel future, with its cruel people. That’s the stuff of sci-fi. The fear of these worlds-to-come presses down on us. We’re sucked into negative stuff and even though it hurts we can’t get enough of it, for it relates back to present day habit trends We revel in our own inevitable degradation.
Science-fiction never shows how it all may change positively if we could drop the habits of short term pleasure and ‘stuff the future’. Older people, especially, find habit change near-to absurd. “Not productive enough to alter the world”!! Their own dwindling years are for them to ‘enjoy things’. “Change” is not fun! To them changing habits seems close to madness – changing the habits of a lifetime for the ‘sake of humanity’ does NOT appeal to the rational thinker. For them there’s no time for all this. “Nor do we have the patience” (to address any of this, right now!)
So the cycle continues. Earth, they say, is the university planet, where we learn the rules of the game, or more precisely, re-learn what we’ve forgotten. And if that takes many lifetimes to achieve, then so be it.
Eventually the penny has to drop, where we learn about tolerance and how to “live” together, where we do the least possible damage to each other (which of course includes all life-forms). In other words we learn to recognise the ‘significance of humanity’.