Opinion: Politics is a religion. There are two different belief systems with a few fringe denominated subsets of beliefs. All parties claim to have a "truth" that a group of people believe in. The people we vote to represent us are like prophets who preach to the people who agree with them, and condemn those who disagree. Every year we make an offering, in the form of taxes, to a seemingly omnipresent government in hopes that we did good last year and our money will be given back to us if this "deity" approves that we did okay. And if we make too much money they will always take some of your money for themselves to use for "governmental" purposes. Our ambassadors are like today's missionaries, spreading the message of democracy. If there is a type of government that our leaders say doesn't hold up to the type of government we have, they propagate that government type as something bad and the masses of the two belief systems demonize that "unfavorable" government type. Then we end up going to war (crusade) with this other government so that we can spread our idea of leadership. We chose a team among these ideologies, and we rarely change. How can we rule the people when every 4 years there a war to elect a leader that only one of the parties agrees with? If I think your wrong, and you think I am wrong, how can either of us be right? Thats means we are both wrong, and we need to get together and come up with a set of rules that we all agree with.

Walt Disney's original E.P.C.O.T film (1966) HD FULL VERSION

Today's topic is infrastructure. I think one of the reasons that the future looked so bright to people of the mid-century is all of the new infrastructure and ultra structure  that was being constructed. It's not hard to see why the future seemed so close. With new buldings, roads, and bridges being built with new construction equipment and methods people thought that even better things were to come. However, instead of replacing old roads and bridges with new innovative technology, we just paved over roads and reinforced old bridges. I know that replacing old stuff seems wasteful, but what if there was way to construct things that were more efficient and that lasted longer. Walt Disney had a vision for future cities. They called it the "Radial Plan". (video to follow) Shining cities of the future where everything is brand new and technology is epicenter rippling out into the lives of everyday people. Helping everyone live better lives.

Cars of the Future! Concept cars were probably the most popular niche of futurism. Popular Mechanics magazine always had articles ,like the one pictured above, that depicted vehicles of the future.

Often they thought that cars would be able to drive themselves, fly, and be powered by solar panels. Autonomy was big part of concept cars, and now we have Tesla cars that are electric and can drive themselves. 

Opinion: This election is crazy, how is it that back in the 40's, 50's, and 60's we were so far seeing about what the future was going to be? And now that we are living in that time, the biggest technological achievements have been medical and cell phones. There aren't floating cities in space, or cities on the moon. We are having war over religion or oil, or whatever it is about. The future of yesteryear was so hopeful. There was hope for a unified world, bent on exploration and innovation. But now we have nationalists and patriots killing each other because they do not live on the same piece of land! And we are currently trying to elect a leader that nobody actually wants. How are supposed to move toward a peaceful world, when we keep separating ourselves from the world culture? We live on the same god damn planet, and we might be all that we have in the universe. How can we not love each other and help one another?

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People of the mid-century thought that cities in space were a possibility for the future. 

Hopes of trading between outsposts and family vacations in space was a dream. 

           

 Another interesting facet of Retro futurism is the architecture of tomorrow. Buildings with clean lines, lack of clutter, and open flowing spaces. The architecture of the "future" was more like urban planning, and green design before they acquired the nomenclature, and it was mostly done by artists. The building designs of future have started to come back into style, moving out of the inefficient yet comfortable style of the 1980s and 1990s, and into the sleek highly efficient designs of what we now call "Post-modern" or "Ultra-modern".
             The architecture of tomorrow was very forward thinking for the time. Its hard to imagine that it took 60 years for it to start being taken seriously into the designs of buildings today. It is great to see the fore-visions of yesteryear being implemented into the architecture of today's post modern society and pushing us even farther into... The Future!

The Space Age!

    My absolute favorite thing during the 40's, 50's, and 60's is the Space Age! This era saw the birth of space travel, the formation of NASA, and the landing on the Moon. The Space Age was also the height of science fiction, with many books and magazines being published. The rise of science fiction in popular culture had the nation dreaming of  future where humans lived and worked off planet. Landing on the Moon brought hopes for a "Moon city". In 1968, Stanley Kubrick brought the works of Arthur C. Clarke to the silver screen in "2001: A Space Odyssey", and it captured the imagination of millions of people. The Space Age brought hopes of a brighter and more exciting Tomorrow through science and technology.