GOOD
= superior, informed and rational
Historical Forces Strategy
The Long View
BAD
= inferior, ignorant, irrational
Anecdotal
Folksy
Parochial
THE FORMULAIC VIEW
Then there is a third view that is different from either the Progressive or Depressive ones. This view says that whatever direction humanity is going, there is a formula or a set of laws that can explain what is going on. From this it would follow that if these formulae or laws can be discovered, then those privileged to understand them could make themselves authorities on the future of humanity itself. Believers in this view can be very different people, but they include:
• Astrologers
• Apocalyptic Millennialists
• Historicists
Astrologers believe that the future of society and individuals is determined by the position and movement of the stars and the planets. My first thoughts on this are that Chinese astrology tells me that I am a cuddly rabbit with a friendly future; whilst Western astrology sees me as cold and calculating with a secure financial future and few friends! But more later.
Apocalyptic Millennialists are less funny. These those who have some serious and exclusive religious belief, usually based on their personal interpretation of a book or a written tradition, that claims to know about 'the end of the world' and the fate of us who live in it. Although this kind of belief has been going on for thousands of years, its track record so far has not been too successful: the world is still here. But more later.
Equally serious and self-