Peter Holmes

Honors 100 AI
9 November 2015
Assignment 3 Global Challenges
All of the issues Farmer names in the utopian vision of 2028 presented in his
Princeton commencement speech are in urgent need of addressing. However, tackling
these problems is made more difficult (if not impossible) by flaws in our most obvious,
large-scale tool for bringing about political and socioeconomic change: democracy. In
theory, democratic government should be citizens most powerful instrument for
addressing issues whose importance they recognize. That was the original ideal that
motivated the implementation of such a political system. However, in the United States,
the democratic process has largely failed to adapt to the modern social and global
landscapes, rendering ill-equipped for positive action against the biggest issues in the
modern world.
There are many undeniable examples of this obsolescence. One of the largest is
environmental policy. In spite of the continuous influx of new evidence in support of
climate change and the widespread citizen dissatisfaction with the U.S.s lack of
response, the American government has been able to implement only small measures to
reduce the countrys formidable carbon footprint. Proponents of pro-environmental
change in the government have their hands tied by corporate special interest groups and
congressional gridlock, among other factors. Another example of the failure of
democracy to bring about positive change can be found in the debate over gun control.
Even with a growing number of school massacres and hundreds of students dead, no
serious gun control measures have been put in place. Three years after the Sandy Hook
shooting, there has yet to be any serious governmental action taken to prevent similar
tragedies.
To make hope and history rhyme in the world, it first has to do so at home. This
will first require a fairly large paradigm shift in American politics. Because of its deep
bond with the countrys spirit of nationalism, many Americans have fallen victim to what
Farmer calls a failure of imagination when it comes to the current political system in
place. Few people even consider that drastic political change is possible, instead
considering the current statutes a boundary for political action that cannot be surpassed.
Yet if the U.S. is to become a proponent of global health, it first needs to adopt a more
globally-friendly political structure. This means knocking down some old, now restrictive
aspects of the system and exercising the long-stagnant ability of the American
government to change at once both returning to the original goal of a democratic
structure and moving boldly into the new, modern world. Once the current government is
given the facelift it so desperately needs, it can stop being an agent of inertia, and instead
become an agent of all the changes Farmer wishes to see brought about in the world,
taking steps towards a utopian 2028.