rone | paulo coelho - fifty years from now... (Reply)

Paulo Coelho, writer of The Alchemist, wrote this article for Ecuador's El Universo. I've translated it without permission because it's an interesting read, but mainly because i need the exercise, so please forgive any solecisms and transliterations.

The diploma will not be so important: we'll have schools of medicine, engineering, and law. The others will disappear off the map, because the current generations are realizing that it's not much help to go to college and end up working in a field that has nothing to do with what you studied. First and second grade will continue to exist.

Tribes will return: Marshall McLuhan, a great communications theorist, said once that the world would become a global village, in which the whole world would run more or less according to the same norms. He did not foresee the appearance of the Internet, which allows people to organize according to their taste and affinity. The State may continue existing, but people will create virtual nations.

The exodus will be from city to country: the great city, vestige of an era when means of communication and the availability of services were very limited, will lose its function. The best salaries will be held by carpenters and artisans, and not sociologists or psychologists. Services (banks, grocers, etc.) will be provided by virtual companies.

The concept of success will change: whoever best takes advantage of the day, and not whoever is wealthiest, will be more successful.

Life will be much simpler: we'll return to the things that are easy to enjoy, inexpensive or, simply, free, such as a beautiful landscape or a visit to a nearby town market. When we're back from the market, we can then read newspapers or watch news bulletins anywhere in the world, thanks to technology. It will help us keep in touch with our tribe, spread throughout the world.

Intuition will be considered as important as logic: the human being, after much resistance, will begin to develop his unknown potential.

The Goddess will gain ground: fifty years are not enough for the idea of the Great Mother to be placed at the same height as that of the Father, who currently dominates religious systems. But there will be fewer prejudices in that regard, and possibly the Catholic Church will prepare to allow women to receive ordination.

Fundamentalism will be at its height: due precisely to the two forementioned points, at this point reaction will be violent. All religions will mobilize their faithful against reform, which will cause much suffering. But this is part of the process. Also, and speaking of a newly tribal world, i believe that the most important tribes will be the ones formed by traditional religions.

State xenophobia will lose ground: xenophobia is the "aversion to foreign people and things." Today, in first-world countries, there is a panic about immigrants, due to their condition as cheap labor and different culture. In the following years, we will help increase the number of laws that will impede immigration, obstruct those with visas, etc. But these tribes are already installed, and despite all the laws, they will end up defeating State xenophobia.

Of the three monotheistic religions, Islam will be the strongest: i don't want to get into political discussions here, but just at the beginning of the Christian Era, two currents derived from Jesus's thoughts were formed. One said that its message depended on each person's voluntary acceptance. The other affirmed the necessity of a hierarchy, and defended martyrdom as a way to demonstrate the importance of conversion. The current that defended martyrdom won; all of us Catholics learned the importance of the example given by the Christians who were stoned or thrown to the lions in Roman circuses. These days, unfortunately, the idea of martyrdom has returned through Islamic fundamentalists. Despite the difference (sacrifice of innocents versus killing of innocents), the notion of martyrdom is stronger, and it will impose itself.

There will be more languages, and one lingua franca: whoever visits Spain in fifty years will find that in Catalonia, only Catalan will be spoken, and in the Basque Country everything will be written in Euskera. The same will happen in all countries: regional languages will strengthen themselves as a way to maintain the tribal identity. Nevertheless, there will be one language that will allow the tribes to communicate with each other, and, given its role in the birth of the Internet, English will be that lingua franca, even though Chinese will be the most spoken language in 2055.

I'm 58 years old, and i don't see myself making it to 108. However, if some young person finds this article interesting, may he please cut it out and find out for himself: i won't be around to receive either boos nor applause.