TOO CLEVER FOR OUR OWN GOOD: A REFLECTIVE REVIEW OF TWELVE KEY ISSUES IN OUR WESTERN SOCIETIES

Abstract

Many people in our Developed Western World believe that we are entering or are already in, an era of great societal change, redolent of the Renaissance and the Reformation periods from a cultural perspective and of the Industrial Revolution in terms of commerce, manufacturing industry and service provision. This study reviews and critiques a broad literature of developments from twelve areas namely 1. Loss of spiritual Faith by many; 2. Increasing Economic Inequality across the social strata; 3.The Increasing Incidence of Mental Illness in Western Societies; 4. Increasing Narcotic Drug Addiction; 5. Increasing Blue Screen Addiction; 6. Failure to Act on Global Warming and Erratic Weather Events; 7. Corruption of Democratically Elected Politicians and the resulting Public Protests Against Their Actions; 8. Trying to Fix the Symptoms of these maladies rather than the Cause; 9.Increasing Civil Unrest Worldwide and Increasing Militarization of Police Forces Worldwide; 10. Endocrine Disruptors; 11. Profit Before People; 12. Corona Virus (Covid 19). A selection of texts by well-established and specialist academic authors testify to the historic concern on these issues. These are supplemented by recent/current on-line sources. Academic journals are limited to past issues because immediate issues such as Covid -19 and racial issues such as the murder of George Floyd by police officers have yet to be published. This research identifies the unintended social and medical consequences which have arisen, in twelve of the most troubling social and medical issues of today. This research invites reflection and thoughtful critical comment from readers.