The problems about living in the future, is that we forget about the past. 100 years ago, World War 1 was raging throughout Europe. 100 years back from that, was the times of Napoleon and the great age of european empires. To put that in perspective, there could have been people alive during the first world war, whos parents lived in a time when the french revolution was as close to them, as the fall of the Berlin Wall is to us. Our past is not as far away from us as we sometimes get the impression of. 

 

Why do we care? Everyone has so many opinions these days, me included. How to save the planet, how to save the economy, how to save the country. The problem is, that most of us lack a fundamental understanding of why things look the way they do in the first place. This means that instead of fixing the cause of the problem, what often happens, is a temporary fix. 

 

Most people are not aware of the fact that the economic crisis of 2008 was a direct cause of the 2000 IT-crash. After the It-crash, governments all over the world put out fixes for this by "stimulating" the economy. All time low interests, and huge rescuepackages to the banks to big to fall. This saw a boom in the mid 00s. Things were great, house prices all over were low, and banks lent a lot of money because of the low interests. The train was on a roll straight towards the abyss that was 2008. 

The interesting thing however starts after 2008, because what was the solution to this crisis? Well hello there, low interests and governments buying out companies. Sounds familiar? These are band aids on an open knife wound. 

 

Amongst the countries hit hardest by the crisis, were the big mediteranean countries of Greece and Italy. Greece is still on the brink of economic collapse and has only been saved by loans from Germany and the IMF making concessions. As if things werent already bad for Greece, the war in Syria, is forcing thousands of refugees over the sea from Turkey into Greece. The UNHC reported in december 2015, that 844,186 refugees had landed in Greece so far. One of the already most unstable countries in the EU region, is dealing with an influx of people totalling that of half of Stockholm. Most of which don't know the language, are wartorn and are generally in a poor state. 

 

Meanwhile, Europe closes its eyes as fast as it turns the shengen agreement into a "Its-only-true-when-we-need-it-to-be"-statement. Germany and Sweden are suffering heavy administrative problems due to the heavy pressure put on the entire societal system. The EU was created after the second world war to strife the extreme levels of nationalism that layed the grounds for the war. But when Europe needed to stand as one the most, the core problems are still there. We are looking at a UK referendum about exiting the co-operation completely, in Sweden, France and Denmark, racist and nationalist parties are all making massive gains in the polls. 

 

Meanwhile eastern europe completely shuts its borders to any immigrants. Poland is looking at a single party with majority in the parliament, and they are making anti-democratic reforms already. Poland is a country that has been under the influence of dictators or under the direct control of such for a long time. And still here we are.

The eastern european countries may be less developed than the western ones, but when in the EU, EU laws needs to be followed. The Dublin agreement states that the first country an immigrant turns up in, should also be the one where they file for asylum. The EU needs to relief and relocate pressure in order to handle this crisis. Chances are that the entire union will crumble if this does not happen. 

 

People forget about the past, not because we do not care. It is because we think of the present as the golden age of intelligence and knowledge. Surely we could never ever do the same misstakes of the past? John F. Kennedy said "The greater our knowledge increases, the more our ignorance unfolds.". The west has gotten complacent in its ways. The generations of the great wars are dying out, and leaving us with only the memories and stories of the old days. 

 

But that said, there is always hope. We have done it before and we can do it again. But it is not the government, or the man who will fix things. It is you and I, and what we teach to our future kids. It is in the way we treat our fellow men. The future is in understanding the past, and by doing so, helping ourselves to achieve great things. Sometimes all we need is a bit of a push in the right direction. Be the one who starts the shove.