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A
27-year-old man was
playing with the 5-
year -old son of a
friend. The hoy was
building a toy crane with
sorne plastic blocks.
" Don't you need a steering
wheel in the crane?" the young
man asked the boy.
"No," the hoy quickly replied,
almost in a disdain ful tone. "The
crane will be run by a computer!"
Momentous changes in society
are enough to leave even a
person in bis late 20s feel-
ing perplexed and out-of-
date. Advancements and
occurrences that would
have shocked people only
sion and its pervasive in fl uence?
• 79 percent have been boro since
the Second World War ended? That
they have never known a Europe that
was not divided, or a world without
the United Nations?
• Nearly a third cannot remember
the Arab oil embargo of 1972-73?
• An overwhelming 96 percent
were not around to experience the
precommunist period?
Having known nothing different,
people tend not to look beyond the
present situation. They fail to ask
Do
solutions to problems, deal with
symptoms rather than origins of
the difficulties.
Yet most people alive today can–
not even begin to address the causes
of this world's problems. T hey do
not know how the world got in this
shape! They are largely unaware of
the great events that fundamentaUy
transformed the way the world func–
tions- events wbose implications
need to be understood to be able to
effect intelligent, positive changes.
a generation ago are taken
fo r g ranted by preteen
children today!
Effects of the Population
Explosion
Population statistics show
that the vast majori ty of
people living now have no
firsthand knowledge of
critica! events that shaped
Dealing with the massive crises
facing the world today
req!J ires tremendous vi–
sion- a world overview–
an understanding of what
has gone befare and how it
has affected outcomes- a
view, as it were, from
higher up!
You
Remember
The problem is that no
human being has that per–
spective. Wise King Solo–
mon of ancient Israel said
of humans, "There is no
remembrance of former
things, nor will there be
any remembrance of
things that are to come by
this society. They have no
frame of reference, either
exper ienced or learned,
from which to understand
world conditions- they
have no vision!
And yet, "Where there
is no vision," declares the
ancient book of Proverbs,
"the people perish"
When
~
•
those who will come
after" (Eccl. l: ll, Re–
vised Authorized Ver–
sion).
Those who lack histor–
ical vision cannot deal
effectively with the ma–
jar problems facing man
today. You can learn to
deal effectively with the
(Prov. 29: 18).
Did yo u know , for
example, that:
• 79 percent of humani–
ty has never lived in a
world without the threat
Did you know four out of every five
people never experienced
how
today's world has come to be what it is?
times in which you live
and avoid most of the
coming horrendous re-
sults of man's mistakes
by reading
The P/ain
Truth
every issue.
of atomic warfare hang-
ing overhead?
• 91 percent of people alive today
were born after the 1929 U.S.
stock-market crash and the begin–
ning of the Great Depression?
• 34 percent of mankind cannot
remember the last Arab- Is raeli war
or U.S. military involvement in
Vietnam?
• Nearly fou r fifths of people
today have never known the world
before computers?
• Sorne 74 pe r cent can not
remember living without televi-
Jul y/ August 1985
t he insightful questions that a
greater overview would engender:
Why sbould matters be this
way? Wby is it assumed that this is
the only way to Uve? Wbat are the
causes of today's world condi–
tions?
Understanding Causes
To eliminate a problem- an
ef–
fect - you
must deal wit h the
cause.
A majar flaw of modero
thinking is that, too often, perfectly
well- intentioned people, looking for
And, fortunately for
all people, One with "a
view from higher up" is shortly
going to intervene in this world's
affairs- and with power to remove
the causes of suffering, unhappi–
ness and wars.
That great power, the eterna!
God himself, will then share with
humans the kind of great vision
that guides him in living perfect–
ly!
What a change that will be in
world affairs and in human life–
styles.
- Dan
C.
Taylor and Norman L. Shoaf
13