Tiderna förändras vare sig vi vill eller ej. En ny industriell revolution är på gång och vi måste se till att förändringen blir till nytta istället för ett hot. Eller som den senaste Nobelpristagaren i litteratur har sagt: “you better start swimmin’ Or you’ll sink like a stone” (se mera text nedan).

Just nu omges vi av krafter som har gjort hotbilden till sitt budskap. I USA heter det “Make America great again” och i Europa har vi samma tongångar på Ungerska, Polska, Franska och Svenska. Önskan tillbaka till en (påhittad) gårdag är stark. Mark Lilla har sammanfattat det väl: “Hopes can be disappointed - Nostalgia is irrefutable.”. Hoppet kan göra dig besviken - Nostalgin är ovedersäglig. Men likafullt måste vi leva i framtiden och inte i gårdagen.

I framtiden väntar den fjärde industriella revolutionen (se bild nedan). Med alla sina utmaningar och möjligheter. Karl Schwab som myntat begreppet skriver:

The more we think about how to harness the technology revolution, the more we will examine ourselves and the underlying social models that these technologies embody and enable, and the more we will have an opportunity to shape the revolution in a manner that improves the state of the world.

Så nu gäller det. Skall vi simma eller sjunka?
———
Bob Dylan – The Times They Are A-Changin’ Lyrics
Come gather ‘round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.