German George Speckert's Requiem For a World After, 1980, FLAC limited time only

 

A German musician named George Speckert made this amazing electronic album in 1980, but nothing like it thereafter, at least so far as I know.  From the note there on discogs:

Actually, Requiem is not really the name of this artist/project. It's the debut solo by George A. Speckert, an American musician who got his Bachelor of Arts degree at a University in England before relocating to Germany where he has stayed ever since. However, in many collector's sales lists it was wrongly listed, just because the word REQUIEM is in big letters on the front. Although not German, this synthesizer LP (with a guest guitarist, Massimo Grandi) is very much in the German style of the era.

And a fitting requiem it is for the year 2024, I will not say it was a good one for the world or the planet. I would love if an optimist could outline why there is a lot of hope for the future when you consider the following facts:

-less and less is being done for climate change even as it progresses into full emergency situation

-the world's conflicts have increased steadily since the last decade, both in number and in casualties, I believe I saw there are more wars now, with greater loss of life, than at any time since 1945, add to that the total unwillingness of East and West to discuss nuclear arms control

-the rise of the far right and populism all over the world seems like the beginning of a new era of fascism, nor is it hard to understand where the appeal comes from, considering that historically times of uncertainty and crisis create a profound human wish for kings (of which we can nominate Elon as the first 'world king' though I think he would consider himself the 'all of space king')

-we can see signs of the future in plateauing of average human lifespan (decreasing in some countries) plateauing of average scores in IQ tests, a slow increase in the number of people in poverty worldwide, and a huge increase in migration patterns, and backsliding in the number of people living in democratic countries

For ex., note the following article that states US life expectancy peaked in 2014-- not just a short time ago, more than 10 years ago. If this trend weren't significant it wouldn't be so long ago (setting aside the decline caused by the pandemic of course)

Given the fact food inflation is proceeding and not expected to reverse we can expect that globally the number of people living in extreme poverty and/or who are malnourished will be increasing, without a doubt, a trend that has been declining or at least plateauing to constant celebration from world organizations or NGOs. Obviously this is a statistic that is almost impossible to really verify or even understand. But I doubt that with food prices so high here in the western world there is no concomitant increase in suffering in the developing world.

I'm especially thinking of Pinker's "The Better Angels" book (which I once admired) describing how enlightenment and democracy (of course led by the US) have led the whole world to a better state-- at the cost of completely ignoring climate change and most of the developing world, which is the majority of humanity of course.  Like the more pathetic "The World is Flat" book by Friedman, the misguided thoughts seem sadly dated. But for all those who have young children, we have to hope that a better world will come, eventually.  Though the children and young adults themselves are the least optimistic about their own futures, and that says a lot. I don't remember being pessimistic about the future of my generation, growing up, not at all, apart from the threat of nuclear war.

So anyways, Happy New Year!

We shall see what happens in 2025...