Dan Among Den

In no particular order:

• Terrorism: Personally, I am convinced. Specifically, there is a meme, a mind set, out there that says that most of the ideals of Western civilization, e.g. freedom, liberty, equal rights for women and minorities, and religious freedom in particular, are all absolutely wrong and must be eliminated at all costs. In that mindset, the destruction of property and the wholesale slaughter of millions are not regrettable costs but are desirable steps down the road to a theocratic state where all differing opinions are crushed. [Note: all comparisons to the Bush administration will be banished to the tinfoil fringe of the reality-challenged community.] So basically, this meme wants to destroy all other memes, and Western civilization's relative tolerance and openness are at the top of its list. I think that in the end it is doomed to failure, but its adherants have the will to make this the bloodiest war this planet has ever seen.
• Asteroid X: Somewhere out there is an asteroid with our name on it. No, not literally... I mean, not unless there's some particularly demented intergalactic vandals out there tagging asteroids with radioactive spray paint, but I digress. Sooner or later, the big rock is going to hit, and if we aren't ready for it, Katrina is going to look like a rainy picnic by comparison. In a nutshell, the dinosaurs went extinct because they didn't have a good space program.
• Energy Depletion: Sooner or later fossil fuels are going to run out. Will we make the switch to other energy sources before then, or will the lights go out? Personally, I think we will, so I'm not that worried on this one, but it's often hard to overestimate the stupidity and shortsightedness of some. (And no, I'm not actually talking about the oil or car companies.)
• The Xaragois Virus: To my knowledge, this Smallpox-infuenza-rhinovirus-Ebola crossbreed pathogen does not yet exist, but when it carves a path of horrific death through our tightly integrated and oft-traveled global economy, just remember that I'm the one who named it.
• Reality TV: You laugh now, but just you wait for our turn on Rigel IV's "Black Hole Deathmatch". We won't last as long as Richard Hatch's underwear.

Now, a few things that I'm not worried about as the "biggest threats to our future":

• Global Warming: In 35 years, climatologists have gone from worrying about the impending ice age to worrying about the out of control warming. In that time, their data collection capability has increased dramatically, but their fundamental understanding of climatological theory has not progressed much beyond, "Golly... chaotic systems are hard to figure out." I'm not completely discounting CO₂ concerns, but my money's on the sunspots -- remember that huge ball of fusing hydrogen outside your window? Its temperature just might not be constant. Time will tell, and hopefully the next sunspot cycle will reverse and give climatologists something else to worry about.
• Globalization and Free Trade: Apart from increasing the rate of epidemic spread, these are good things. They bring economic opportunity to the poorest parts of the world [Note: Gap protesters will be sentenced to farming rice by hand in Malaysia.], lowers costs [Note: protesting union members will immediately have all of their purchases tripled in price], and prevents wars [Note: Perot and Buchannen can go grab a rifle and defend the borders when the next trade war turns ugly.]
• Corporate Greed: Whine all you want, but corporations built this country. Yes, some of the executives have crossed the line, but we have laws, and some of them are getting a new view of them. This is no different from when feudal lords tossed out serfs who could no longer farm the land. No, wait, it is different. They got away with it then.
• Bush and Republicans: You know, some of you... I mean, I can respect an honest difference in policy views, even deeply held differences in philosophy over the role of government, but some of the end-of-the-world rants I see out there... let's just say I hope I never write something that looks that irrational.
• Moral Decay: I see a lot of church-goers point to one "depravity" or another and proclaim that this will surely lead to the end of the world. Hey, I've got news for you, these modern "depravities" don't hold a candle to some of the stuff going on a few thousand years ago, some of which still happen today, just a few thousand miles away. If drugs and sexual liasons/variations are all we have to be worried about, then we're in pretty good shape. Me, I don't even think those are things to be worried about at all.

Other Friday Fivers can be found dodging the falling sky here.