The recent elections in Berlin brought a breath of fresh air to the old, dull, gray landscape of political parties around the world.  At a time when it is hard to tell the difference between parties as they espouse old, tired, out-of-date ideas, along comes something completely different – the Pirate Party of Berlin.

Prior to the Berlin elections, the predictive articles in the German press were all about the traditional parties and which of them would increase and which would decrease in popularity and legislative influence.  Much of the coverage related to the parties’ relative positions on the Euro crisis …

In the last three years, I have spoken about how 2012 might well be one of the most change-filled, disruptive years in America in recent memory.  It is a quadrennial election year.  It is the year of the Mayan Prophecy.  It figures to be a year of political conflict between those who want to hold onto the legacy structures and ways of thinking of the 20^th century and those who realize that the 21^st century is a time for new forms and ways of thought.  I had, until recently, felt that, while disruptive, 2012 would be about transformation and new …

[Note: The following column was published in the last Shift Age Newsletter.  If you would like a free subscription to the Newsletter, please click here and fill out the short subscription form]

Many of us attend conferences that are about certain topics, such as new technology, new behaviors or new forms of communicating. Speakers and panels get up on stage and spew new acronyms to show they are experts, or in the know, or specialists. Since we are not sure what they all mean, we think those who speak them must be smart. If we know what the jargon …

[Note:  This column was recently published in my Shift Age Newsletter. Please click here to sign up for a free subscription.]

In the past few months – and particularly the past few weeks – I’ve been asked everyday about what I think the near-term economic future will be. People even ask me about the stock market: Should they buy real estate? What do I think the price of gold might be? Because I’m a futurist who has been correct about some big things, they look to me for investment advice in these incredibly uncertain times.

I am not an …