Gary Clover reviews a book by George Bryant, published by DayStar Books in June 2022.

What are Kiwis looking for in their daily lives? More comfort, security and personal freedom? Being pain-free? Greater pleasure? More money? What is required to live a good, worthwhile existence? Will we be happier and more caring? These are just some of the questions George Bryant asks as he examines what our lives might be like in 2050, only 28 years hence. An ordained Presbyterian minister in Tauranga, publisher, past college principal and political activist, Bryant has been a prolific author of 24 books of a socio-political nature which promote his perceptive observations of New Zealand’s present and future socio-cultural and economic trends, such as Big Questions in 2019.

Within 164 pages and 19 short, pithy chapters, Bryant explores topics and trends ranging from new technology and IT advances to future genetics and developments in health, industry, agriculture, religion and the environment. He considers how increasing globalisation, trade regulation, security pacts and consumer demands are changing our New Zealand society and MMP politics. He also considers the future of education, political correctness, our growing racial and cultural diversity, the impact of our expanding rich-poor divide and humanity’s future if we cannot tame climate change or suffer more catastrophic natural disasters.

This is a very readable little book to savour and repeatedly return to as Bryant exhorts us “to think about where we are going as a country”. It’s a thought-provoking, well-researched read which skips rapidly through each chapter, introducing information and insights which until 1988 the Commission for the Future published more extensively. It leaves many more questions than answers.

Surprisingly missing is a chapter tracing iwi socio-economic and political advancements since the 1980s. Nor is any substantial consideration given to the future place of Māori in an officially bicultural and bi-lingual, but increasingly diverse multi-racial New Zealand. The Treaty of Waitangi, Crown-tribal settlements and co-governance, by which Māori, the Māori world view and iwi investment clout are increasingly impacting New Zealand’s economy and political future, are mentioned throughout but only as scattered references.

“The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create”, is a quote introducing Chapter 17, by Leonard Sweet, a contemporary American theologian, academic, and church analyst. If this book inspires us to dream, then create the vision, values and social future that advances the wellbeing of us all, it will have done its job well.