This is an academic journal and this piece reports on findings from research done on people's broad views of the future. The study used a sample of over 2,000 people in Australia, US, UK and Canada. Eckersley, commenting on one major implication of the findings, makes this insightful observation:
The findings strip the ground from under the largely 'business as usual' strategies that dominate political thinking. Concerns about the world's future barely register in our politics; our political leaders proclaim constantly that Australia is a great nation with a great future. This tension may contribute more than politicians and political pundits suspect to the current mood of political disillusion and cynicism.This disconnect between the views of the future of ordinary people and the views of the real leadership can be explained by looking at the realities of a class-based split of society in which the leadership is based on "ownership" and control of all major institutions of society (by definition, a ruling class). The leadership especially in Western societies are capitalists and the agents among the middle class who loyally serve them.
Because the study did not collect responses by class (this would have been impossible for the ruling One Percent (actually .01%) because of the small sample size), it is unknown how many people of the "leadership class" actually believe their own propaganda ("the dominant thinking") about the future. I suspect that many of them do not. However, they must keep ordinary people believing it so that they, capitalists, who depend on the latter to show up at work, can continue with their business as usual: engaging in the relatively short-term "highs" of power and profit.
