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Show Noted social critic opens series .'TV w ' born, are born to adversity if current I trends continue. "The children born ! over the next few years will face the trauma of the breakdown in the home. I 40 percent of the children under the ' age of three will have working mothers. Most children will spend a$p8t$Bf, their childhood in a one parent home... children will also be lefTwithouf mothers during the time from 8 to 15 months of age. This is one of the most important ages-intelligence, ages-intelligence, language use, curiosity - and social skills are all being I developed at this time," stated Packard. I t Conclusion Calling the major ailment of our society the "breakdown in human values and the breakdown of the family" Packard cautioned that these values need to be developed in the children which we raise. "In terms of political institutions, most of the things ailing America are ailing the countries around the world including Communist countries and privileged societies," said Packard. "Some problems are intractable. We will have inflation for the next decade. Energy is an inflationary fact and its one of the reasons why we have a bigger to smaller thrust in our society. The real revolution today is in the idea of small which partly is a reflection of the contracton of energy as we have traditionally used it," concluded the expert. Vance Packard by June Adams Staff Reporter Adjusting to a rapidly changing world will be the challenge for in-ll in-ll $ Vi,duaTls.,.a.n.d society n .the coming wSdecades,, U , SVaAaiir Packard emineM social; critic, spoke to a packed audience at Southern Utah State College last Thursday as the initial lecturer in the Grace Adams Tanner Lecture Series. He is the author of numerous best sellers on sodal subjects including his most recent book, The People Shapers. The crucial issue of the next five to ten years will be energy and people will have to adopt new life styles to become less dependent on petroleum according to the speaker. Maintaining world peace will be another challenge of this period (predicted Packared who said that when the Soviet Union begins to import oil and more nations are vying for a share of the petroleum pie that world tensions will increase. Having predicted the energy crunch back in the 1960s when he wrote The Waste Makers, Packard claimed that within five years the U.S. could be importing 30 percent less petroleum. He cited the fact that Americans currently use twice as much petroleum as West Europeans who often have a higher standard of living. I According to the critic, we should have been exploring energy alter-I alter-I natives including fusion and solar back in the sixties but were diverted by the Vietnam War and "the spectator spec-tator event of the man on the moon." Chastising American industry, he said,"As recently as 15 months ago big cars were popular. Was industry being prudent or responsible to the national need?" Although gas mileage for American gas guzzlers has improved from the 1973 average of 12 m.p.g., Packard attributed much of this improvement to the pressures of the federal government on the auto industry which he said they had resisted "every step of the way." By the 1990s more possibilities with solar, hydrogen and such alternative energy devices as windmills will start to be used. However, during the next . ten years the increased use of coal and nuclear energy will be the answer with nuclear fusion still years away. How to allocate the petroleum energy which is available will also be a problem. Questions on priorities of whether to fly jets or allocate for the making of synthetic fibers, pesticides, asphalt-all things which our society has become dependent on- will have to be determined. He sees a future of electric cars where filling stations become places to recharge batteries and where golf carts replace cars in urban centers. "The furnace also needs to be reinvented rein-vented along with the car and Packard claims that a more efficient oil furnace which is 40 percent more efficient than the average furnace has been around for 15 years. He advocated the organization of - local energy boards by cities and used the example of progressive David, Ca. which saves 70 percent on energy through community planning and where bicycles are a common mode of transportation. Telecommunications In the future, Packard predicts that each home will have a telecommunications telecom-munications room with a two way cable capability, he said that people will be able to participate in town meetings, take college courses and have a wealth of information availble on their four foot television screen. "The bad thing about this is that it will tend to lead to more im-personalization, im-personalization, there will be a decrease in human contacts," commented Packard. People will be able to buy goods advertised by pressing a button, the price will be electronically deducted from the appropriate bank account and the goods will be delivered to the home predicted the future oriented thinker. Biology "We're in a biological revolution. There are all kinds of new innovations to test our malleability-such as chemical and electrical stimulation. This is an important ' philosophic issue. How malleable do we want to be? Do we want to be pliable for any authoritarian person or master of our own fate?" questioned Packard. Pills for mood modifications, sexual arousal, increased intelligence and longevity are all areas currently being researched. "We have to question whether we , want the drug companies peddling get smart pills? What are we going to do as a society, do the rich get them and the poor don't?" continued Packard. ' Other questionable areas of biological advancement, concern the altering of human genes. Packard predicts a future society of 55 percent male and 45 percent female if pre-sexing pre-sexing children becomes a common practice-something which could "reawaken sexism" according to the author. He said that the children now being Roger Wilkins: "The Public Broadcasting System has decided not to renew a program called 'Another Voice', which had been on for two years, a direct successor to 'Black Perspective on the News', which had run for six. Both were panel interview shows (based on) the theory that journalists who had developed their sensitivities living as blacks in America, and who had covered a variety of American stories could.. .illuminate corners that might not be reached by the quesitons put by white journalists. ..there is much less interest in minorities now.. .'Another Voice' is gone, and we are all the poorer for it." Patricia O'Brien: "The newest college craze tickles me so much I have half a mind to go out and buy a Teddy bear. Male and female students at the University of Maryland are running around at midnight tucking each other into bed. For a small fee, the male members of Pillow Talk, Inc. will read a bedtime story to a girl, tuck her in and kiss her goodnight... when I crawl into bed after a hard day of dealing with high prices, traffic jams, and reading about the latest humiliation in Iran, I could use a little comfort. If we had any really smart politicians around -which I doubt - they might hook onto the idea and turn it into the Humanitarian Act of the 1980s. Think of it: A nation of people in pajamas tucking each other in at night. We could do a lot worse." |