Today, we see more clearly what history has produced – a world of centuries of wars, slavery, conquests, imperialism and colonialism. The outcome has been massive wealth on one side and mass poverty, inequality and misery on the other. The MDGs and the SDGs had to be created as policy frameworks that could reduce, not correct, the injustice. Advancement in technology and production systems made correcting some of the ills possible. Politics and power dynamics have created stumbling blocks. The current geopolitical dynamics is worsening the situation. The concentration of wealth in a few hands has increased dramatically. The world is changing dramatically as hegemons unravel and new ones are seeking to emerge. Faultlines are deepening as the old hegemons throw out the rules based international system, as imperfect as it was, and return to piracy and 19th century style gun boat diplomacy in which might is right. Death and destruction spreads as AI aided warfare replaces the maxim gun as the capacity for maximum destruction and genocide grows to infinite hights.
In this context, the outlook for the SDGs might be determined by Elon Musk statement that “the fundamental weakness of Western civilisation is empathy” during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. To care for the poor, the hungry, the victims of violence requires empathy. Many among the richest and most powerful want an end to empathy, care and would love to leave the masses behind. Trust the bloody capitalists to forget that it was the invention of the welfare State that saved their system from revolution.
