I’ll start this rantology with my closing words from “Buckle Up Buttercup”. “… if my ideas (about increasing alienation) are anywhere near correct, these trends are going to continue and perhaps even accelerate. That’s not a pretty picture.”

What drives the rise of alienation? In rough chronological order (that is what happens first, second, third and so on over time) I see demographics, income inequality, corruption, tribalism and finally technology as a base accelerator of the others.

• Demographics – Two factors. More politically experienced females and greater ethnic diversity.
• Income inequality – The rich get richer; the poor get poorer. Check with Maria Antoinette on that point.
• Corruption – you can’t trust leaders to do anything other than line their own pockets
• Tribalism – “If you ain’t one of us, you are the enemy which must be obliterated.”
• Technology – acts like afterburner for the first four, especially social media (I’m looking at you Facebook and twitter.

But how do we know what’s going on?  What should we look for? What are the things that give us an idea of how these drivers are changing? You need to understand strategic foresight and two of its methods: leading indicators and weak signals. Spoiler alert – how to do this in the longish version.

What To Do?

Who are you going to call? Ghostbusters I guess. There are four steps to this slimy process.

• get smart
• stay alert
• have a plan
• start developing leaders that know how to use leading and weak indicators.

Don’t forget. If you want to see the Extended Play longish version of this (with references of course) you can request it from me at cegrantham@gmail.com. Yes, I will solicit a donation, he says smarmily.

These leading, weak indicators are your “Ghostriders In The Sky” so let’s have Johnny and Willie take us out. Take care of yourself.