OLLI COURSE CURRICULUM
Mortgaging the American Dream:
What Were We Thinking?
In today’s “play now-pay later” culture, we are mortgaging the future – The American Dream – in a futile quest to sustain an unsustainable paradigm of living. The clock is ticking as climate change, ecological mayhem, crushing debt, a new Cold War, and other forces are conflating to produce a Perfect Storm. This seven-session course explores these colliding forces, the threats they pose, and the things we can do to mitigate the Storm’s sharper edges, and includes a blueprint to ensure a more promising legacy for future generations.
OLLI COURSE CURRICULUM
Syllabus and Logistics
Session
01
An Introduction
Introduces the key concepts and themes of the course with a framework for connecting the dots, plotting out future scenarios, and lessons learned from COVID-19 and how they are applicable to the themes of this course.
Session
02
The Key Forces in Play
Explores and tracks the gathering forces of the Perfect Storm with respect to the major storm cells, force multipliers that are pushing us toward tipping points of irreversible damage, and the explosive mechanics of these colliding forces and their exponential impacts on our future.
Session
03
The 1940s, 50s, and 60s
Longitudinally tracks the progressive development of the gathering storm from inception, since WWII, through the 1960s. The milestone events shaping the Storm, and mortgage taken on the American Dream to keep it all going is tracked with key metrics provided, by decade, to quantify the trendlines.
Session
04
The 1970s, 80s, and 90s
The post-Vietnam trajectories, space race, fall of the Soviet Union, end of the Cold War, and America in transition are tracked, along with global warming, the age of King Oil, advent of a highly connected world through the internet, and an end-of-the 20th century summary.
Session
05
The New Millennium
As the Storm intensifies with the 9/11 attack, Great Recession of 2008, birth of new mobile technologies, climate change, emergence of China as a superpower, and the emerging new Cold War, the stage is set for decades to come. Terrorism, the Gulf Wars, and American foreign policy in a changing world are explored.
Session
06
The Five Mega-Threats now facing the world
Key global challenges are condensed into five mega-threats that include: 1) Global destabilization and ticking time bombs, 2) Climate change, resource depletion, and ecological destruction, 3) Energy and technological challenges, 4) An American implosion that could rock the world, and 5) the dynamic impact of our weakened ability to address the perfect storm in our pathway.
Session
07
Weathering the Storm
The course concludes on a more positive note with a blueprint for mitigating the sharper edges of the coming storm called “Reengineering the American Dream.” It uses the crisis as a catalyst for building a better world with a more positive outlook for future generations if we will awaken to the threat with an aggressive response