Why we need a Department of the Future | Kim Heacox

For too long we've been shortsighted, mistaking our cleverness for wisdom. Now, it's time for politics to take a longer view Shortly before he died in 2007, the celebrated American novelist, iconoclast and second world war veteran Kurt Vonnegut gave a final interview. "My country is in ruins," he said. "I'm a fish in a poisoned fishbowl." Vonnegut was 84, and sounded razor sharp as he spoke about inequality and political shortsightedness, adding that in the history of the United States "one thing that no cabinet has ever had is a Secretary of the Future, and there are no plans at all for my children and grandchildren.""Why should I care about future generations?" asked the comedian Groucho Marx. "What have they ever done for me?" Continue reading...