This is an excerpt from a Robert Theobald article that appeared in the Futurist in 1992:
I believe the world can be better. I am also certain that it is getting worse.
We can seize our opportunities and move beyond the dangers that threaten us, but to be effective, we must abandon the naive beliefs controlling us. Every time I hear someone say, "The world will change when things get bad enough," I get more disturbed.
This common belief ignores the fact that human beings can adapt to almost everything. What was once intolerable all too easily becomes the norm. There is a parallel in biology: It is said that if you place a frog in cold water and raise the temperature very gradually, it will never jump out. Eventually, the frog just boils to death.
If we were thinking clearly, we would realize that we are already in hot water.
We must stop waiting for the event that will catalyze a commitment to fundamental change, that will make us finally say things are bad enough. Rather, we must join together now to discover the processes that will enable us to grasp the extraordinary opportunities of our time. Fortunately, a significant percentage of the population are already aware of the extent of the problems in the culture and are ready to act as courageous realists.
We need more people willing to face the world as it is rather than pretending that problems do not exist.
Courageous realists are neither optimists nor pessimists. They do not believe that the world will necessarily move in either a good or a bad direction. On the contrary, they understand clearly that the future is determined by the actions of all of us alive today. Our choices determine our destiny.
If I look at reality as an objective analyst, I am convinced that we shall fail to cope with our crises. Indeed, our current reality is so bad that it is "reasonable" to conclude that nothing can be done. Many people have therefore withdrawn from participation in our society, choosing to concentrate on their own lives and trying to forget the decay in the society around them.
Despair is destructive, however. I choose to believe that enough people will commit to changing the world to assure that we will succeed. I know that success is possible. The challenge is to you, the individual. We all make a difference by what we do and what we leave undone. You are inevitably one factor affecting the future; both your actions and inactions have consequences. And we can all provide each other with the knowledge that will help us get out of the hot water.