More than ever before, the world seems to be on the verge of disaster. We are all surrounded by a cacophony of bad news and warnings.

The continuing wars and terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan, belligerent Iran threatening isolated Israel, nuclear-powered Pakistan teetering on the brink with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto _ any of these could be the flashpoint that ignites far greater global conflagration.

Concurrently, rising oil prices and the decline of world stock markets are raising the specter of worldwide recession, sidelining the Mid-East wars as immediate political issues. Meanwhile, the out-of-sight and longer-term problems remain - future social-security bankruptcy, education and health-care decline, global warming, AIDS in Africa, genocide in Darfur _ the list goes on and on.

Activism on any one issue is rendered futile when overshadowed by the plethora of problems. So no one cares enough to do anything. That's Apathy, says Shannon Hays in a recent issue of American Mensa magazine, "It is symptomatic of an insidious general malaise, rooted in a disturbing national detachment".

Perhaps most of us simply don't see what we ourselves can do to change anything. And so we do nothing. We wait, expecting that today's worry will be forgotten after tomorrow's new bad news. And so important, major long-term issues are shelved for future generations.

In the US we espouse democracy as "freedom" while we collaborate with military dictatorships and repressive "royals" in the Mid-East. On the surface these people cater to our pretensions, while they sneer behind our backs and continue with undemocratic domination of their people and indirect funding of terrorism. The world understands only two obvious possible motivations for the conflict _ Religion and Oil.

Conventional hard solutions are completely inadequate _ tanks and warplanes cannot stop suicide bombers. How many millions must die before the paradigm shifts? What is the catalyst that will signal recognition that no one is right or wrong?

Meantime, steadily, and seemingly inexorably, the gap between the haves and have-nots seems to grow ever more unbridgeable. For the majority of the world, the spread of poverty and disease are the most urgent problems. The mass of humanity continues to subsist on the edge of starvation, largely ignored by the media and the wealthy, and catered to only by extremists, religious zealots and political demagogues who incite ever more dangerous unrest. Within the next few decades, perhaps years, these worlds will collide.

While disaster looms, the vast majority remains silent, feeling like helpless onlookers completely incapable of doing anything. And this leaves the minority fringes, the extremists, those who are willing to sacrifice everything, even their lives, acting from an utter sense of despair.

The realization grows that the fundamentals must change for the continuing conflict to cease. The hard realities of the new century bring the recognition that a new society is emerging _ new demographics, institutions, ideologies and problems. Things will be quite different from the society of the late 20th century and different from what most people expect. Much of it will be unprecedented. Most of it is already here, or is rapidly emerging.

The mass of humanity yearns to renew itself and the time for transition is near. The change will come when we care enough to ask each other, "What am I doing that makes you feel you must hurt me?" With understanding will come perhaps the beginning of a universal brotherhood of humanity.

Ever the optimist, I predict _ perhaps I just "feel" _ that the solutions already lie within the problems themselves. Inventive, innovative, caring, charitable, far-sighted humans will indeed find a way. The future will be a better place.

Jim Pinto (2001) - Soft Solutions to Hard Problems: http://www.jimpinto.com/writings/softsolutions.html

Pinto Predictions & Possibilities - links: http://www.jimpinto.com/futures.html