Things Are Looking Up — Also Down and Kind of Sideways

The Pew Research Center did some phone polling for Smithsonian magazine in April and May, questioning U.S. residents about what they expect the next 40 years to bring.

71% of USians believe cancer will be cured by the year 2050. If you're not one of them, you need not necessarily despair about the chances of eliminating the over a hundred different diseases which share that name. Maybe you're one of the 41% who believe that Jesus Christ* will return by then. If that happens, the world war that 58% of USians expect within the next 40 years, the asteroid that 31% of us anticipate, and the whole cancer problem will presumably no longer matter.

Oh, and a big 89% believe a woman will be elected president of the US by 2050, which is no doubt encouraging news for those of you who anticipate living that long. But while only 11% of USians doubt any woman is wise enough to reach that position within the next 40 years, a full 31% don't think you wise Latina women should bother to aim that high, or wise Latinos, either, for that matter.

Respondents were questioned only about which things they thought were likely to occur, not which things they would like to see occur, however, so it's not clear how many of the nearly one-third who thought a Hispanic person would neither definitely nor probably be elected to the U.S. presidency in that time were expressing doubts about the ability of Hispanics to progress to that position and how many were expressing doubt about the willingness of their fellow non-Latin@ USians to vote for a Hispanic. (Hispanic is the designation used in the poll.)

More generally, 68% of those questioned think race relations will be "better" in forty years — exactly the same percentage as gave that response to the same question in 1999. Oddly enough, that's the only response which was not less optimistic in a series of questions about the future of the U.S. asked both then and now. I guess better race relations in the U.S. are always right around the corner. That corner down the road a ways.

A somewhat optimistic note was struck, for those of you not in the U.S., by responses to a new question as to whether the role of the U.S. in the world would be more or less important in 2050 than it is now. 40% thought it would be more important, but 53% thought it would be less so. So who knows? Maybe we'll come on home, start fixing the joint up, and mind our own business for a change.

If J.C. is planning a return trip in the near future, I do think the decent thing to do would be to show up before the world war, so we don't have to have it. But that's my lefty bias showing. No doubt there are many in the U.S. who would find the prospect of a world war entirely agreeable, but who are fervently praying that Jesus comes to get them before a woman is elected to the presidency.

I wonder if he'll ride in on that asteroid?

*I assume we're talking about the one in the bible, not the one formerly resident in Ohio.

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