Imagine a world where the right to vote is granted the day you are born. And where there is always someone representing the interests of future generations when decisions are made. Can we do away with short-termism, ask Anders Folmer Buhelt and Sara Gry Striegler.
By Anders Folmer Buhelt and Sara Gry Striegler.
This article was first published in Impact Insider on Feb 20, 2023
In large parts of the Western world, there is a growing awareness and focus on time – a time perspective that extends far beyond what we are used to.
The climate crisis and the consequences it may have for future generations have helped to set this movement in motion. This has led to questions about how we can allow ourselves to make decisions that extend far into the future without taking into account the people who will be alive at that time. And to the question: Do we have the ability to do things differently?
In some parts of the world, this approach is not new, but dates back to before 1500 and is woven into traditional cultures.
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy in northeastern North America has very old and very strong democratic traditions, a fundamental element of which is the "seventh generation principle."
It is a philosophy that the decisions we make today must result in a sustainable world seven generations from now. Not only decisions about infrastructure, energy supply, and natural resources, but also decisions about relationships, care, and other social and societal contexts.
The Maori people of New Zealand have a similar philosophy when it comes to their decisions, and in several cultures, people look both far back and far ahead in order to make good decisions.
Are we trapped in short-termism?
Perhaps the reason why it is difficult for us to change our behavior in relation to the climate crisis is that the greatest climate impacts will be felt most acutely by people far away from us – both geographically and in time.
We know that the consequences are unevenly distributed – that we in the rich countries that emit the most are affected the least – and we know that the major disasters will not happen in our lifetime, but rather in that of our grandchildren or great-grandchildren.
Kenney Warne writes in an article in National Geographic that while it makes evolutionary sense that we find it difficult to connect with people who are geographically distant from us because we do not belong to the same "tribe," it does not make sense that we are not better at connecting with our descendants – because they belong to our "tribe."
So why don't our descendants occupy our consciousness when we make decisions? Are we trapped in short-term thinking?
Short-term thinking may be becoming an existential threat to humanity.
Short-term mindsets and structures across business, politics, and society threaten our shared future: Election cycles that call for urgent action and quick results in order to get re-elected. Quarterly financial reports in companies that reward quick returns over long-term value. The constant flow of news that captures our immediate attention.
None of the structures we have created in our society support or reward long-term thinking. One might be tempted to ask why our democracy and voting rights do not favor those who will experience change and political decisions the longest?
With the rhetoric of the yellow breaking bar, one could say that our tunnel vision, with its focus on the immediate future, leads to decisions that could mean that, in the worst case scenario, we will only have a short future as a species.
But it is easier said than done to take the long view in a short-sighted world, so something new is needed: It requires decisions, structures, and focus.
Fortunately, we can draw inspiration from countries that have created structures to take responsibility for thinking about the future in their decisions.
The future as a guiding element in legislation
As early as 1993, the Finnish Parliament established aCommittee for the Future– similar to the many committees we have in the Danish Parliament: the Children and Education Committee, the Finance Committee, the Social Affairs Committee, etc.
The Future Committee acts as a kind of think tank for future, science, and technology policy in Finland, and the committee's mission is to create dialogue with the government about major future challenges and opportunities.
At least once during its term of office, the government submits a report—the government's future report—on the government's goals and proposals for very long-term development.
The report incorporates long-term perspectives and is presented by the prime minister to parliament. The main task of the Future Committee is then to prepare Parliament's response – Parliament's future report.
In this way, the Finnish government and Parliament can work together to identify important political themes at such an early stage that various alternatives and political lines are still completely open. Parliament's decisions are thus based on a broad information base of projections, wishes, and ideas about the future, rather than solely on an acute problem or snapshot of the current situation.
Other countries that have future committees in their parliaments include Chile, the Philippines, Iceland, Lithuania, Paraguay, and Uruguay. In addition, there are other committees that deal extensively with future issues, including in Austria, Canada, Poland, Thailand, Estonia, and Vietnam.
In other words, it is more widespread than one might think to formally incorporate considerations for the future and future generations into political work.
Welsh law ensures the well-being and quality of life for future generations
In 2015, the Well-being of Future Generations Act was passed in Wales in response to the major challenges facing Wales, as well as most other countries: climate crisis, poverty, health inequality, demographic change, and well-being.
In order to provide both current and future generations with a high quality of life, the focus is on the long-term impact of the decisions that are made. The Act therefore contains a legal obligation to improve social, cultural, environmental, and economic well-being and requires public bodies in Wales to take into account the long-term impact of their decisions.
The Act emphasizes the importance of thinking across the board, mobilizing all relevant resources, and balancing short-term needs with long-term needs.
Danish reforms call for a longer view - and courage.
At a time when the Danish government wants and needs to implement a series of reforms, and when leading politicians have stated during the recent election campaign that ‘we don’t know how to solve the well-being crisis’, it is not only meaningful but also far more responsible to take a much longer-term perspective on the challenges.
The dictionary definition of reform is ‘change, especially improvement of an existing condition’.
So imagine if the government set up a future committee to seriously explore long-term opportunities as input for rethinking large parts of the mechanisms and structures of our welfare society.
This requires courage and, not least, patience, a whole new way of understanding our society and the role we all play in it. Perhaps this could sow seeds that future generations will reap the benefits of?
Generational solidarity and long-term planning
How long is a long time? It sounds like a question a small child might ask their parents. But it is a very relevant question in the fast-paced and short-sighted times we live in.
We need to gain a new perspective on the decisions we make and the things we do. We have a moral obligation to think about the consequences for future generations—our descendants.
To create this cultural change in a fast-paced and consistently short-term world, we need both whatThe Long Time Project calls"long-timism" – caring for the world beyond our lifetime – and "long-termism" – long-term planning for future benefits and goals. This requires skills that we do not prioritize and cultivate today.
Capacity and skills to work long-term
We need visionary leaders in all parts of society and sectors with long-term missions (and investments!) and policymakers who have the capacity to think and, most importantly, act in a more future-oriented way.
We are facing major societal challenges: the significant well-being crisis among young people and the lack of resources in the health and elderly care sectors, combined with demographic developments, but also the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, and galloping inflation.
The challenges are interrelated, complex, and have significant consequences for people's lives. They affect not just one, but many areas of our welfare society. They are inextricable in the coming election period, but we cannot wait to address them.
Lars Løkke recently pointed out that we in Denmark lack crisis awareness. An understanding of the serious challenges we face, which over time can have truly fatal consequences for our society if we are not willing to change and give up for the benefit of the community. He called for understanding and willingness to see the bigger, longer perspective for each of us. And, one might add, for our descendants.
It is not enough to leave it to our political leaders. A shift in caring for future generations and society and extending our empathy for this requires something from all of us. Both now and in the future.
Citizens and community builders of the future
Today, children must learn traditional skills in school, but have we forgotten to cultivate the imagination and creativity that will ensure development and enable us to tackle future challenges in new ways? That we can challenge the status quo, the logic and mechanisms that help maintain our societal challenges? Perhaps they are even central to our well-being?
One of the things that disappears when we are not thriving is the ability to imagine that our lives could be different, that our everyday lives could be something else. So perhaps imagination,long-termism– popularly known as‘future skills’ – are the skills of the future?
Such an approach can be found in a set of tools that Denmark has a long tradition of: design. Many may perceive design as primarily concerned with aesthetics and form, but design is in fact an approach to concretizing, investigating, and challenging.
Adopting a design-based approach means basing our work on social, human, collaborative, interdisciplinary, and meaningful qualities—values that are as much a part of Denmark's DNA as form and aesthetics.
The design mindset makes it possible to create momentum in situations characterized by ambiguity and internal contradictions. This is extremely valuable, especially in complex systems where many different people, processes, and structures must come together and interact in a higher unity. With a focus on democratizing, involving, and experimenting.
Key international players such as UNESCO, the OECD, and many others have really opened their eyes to these skills and the ability to challenge underlying understandings of the world, to imagine that the future may have alternative outcomes, and to act accordingly; that is, to translate, inspire, and inform today's decisions and developments.
UNESCO is working to promote futures literacy as a crucial element in the education of children and young people. When they proclaimed December 2 asInternational Future Day, they emphasized the importance of these competencies as some of the most essential skills in recent times.
The OECD's laboratory for public sector innovation, OPSI, which advises and supports governments in applying new approaches to achieve local, national, and global policy priorities, is currently strengthening and developing these very competencies.
In Denmark, we are also seeing ripples on the surface. Several organisations companies are looking for new ways to orient themselves toward the future and the long term in order to navigate our uncertain and ambiguous reality.
There are several players in this field in Denmark, such as the Institute for Future Studies, which focuses on future competencies, but also Danish Social Innovation Academy the Danish Design Center, which work with long-term thinking and imagination in their efforts to address complex societal challenges.
We need to join forces and mobilize our collective imagination and long-term thinking—and we should ask our politicians and other decision-makers to take the lead. By definition, the future is not something we can predict, but rather something we create ourselves through our actions, our decisions, and the choices we make today.
