She notes that Wishard’s name may not be familiar to many readers, but he was something of a prophet for an earlier generation of legislators, military generals and corporate leaders who were trying to make sense of the tectonic changes taking place in the world.

Parker quotes Wishard talking about the decline of Western civilization to the rise of fanaticism, to the greatest religious metamorphosis in history, to a rapidly expanding information environment that confuses as much as it informs.

“Wishard says we’re in the midst of a global crisis of identity, meaning and spiritual displacement,” she wrote.

All this leads to existential angst, but in this century, Parker opinions, we’re experiencing an accelerated version of angst and anxiety owning to the pace our lives and the blur of data daily feeding into our brains.

Parker has provided Wishard with a nationwide platform to present some of his thoughts. But to the readers of the Lake Placid News and the Virginia Gazette, Wishard’s views of the world are more familiar.

He has close ties to Williamsburg. His sons are graduates of William & Mary, and he has lectured here. He periodically issues scholarly papers that clarify the role of forces that are reshaping our world.

In a previous interview with the Lake Placid News and the Virginia Gazette, Wishard said, “The overriding question confronting the world is this: Do we comprehend, at a fundamental level, what is reshaping the global context?

“Are we simply passing through what appears to be extremely dangerous and difficult period of multiple crises, after which life will return to a more familiar normalcy? Or do these converging crises signal the end of the world, as we’ve known it, and the emergence of a totally new phase of human existence? Are we experiencing a shift in the tectonic plates of life? If so, is it reasonable to suggest that the next three decades may be the most decisive 30-year period in history?”

He explained that the modernization, urbanization and globalization of China, India and other nations will be the most dynamic and convulsive events of the coming decades. Billions of people will have their personal and collective lives transformed to a greater degree, in a shorter space and time, than have ever experienced by any nation.

Wishard is concerned, as he told Parker, that time is running out for us to identify and understand these trends and help shape them into a less-frightening future.

He also pointed out that for thousands of years the environmental question was how to protect humans from the ravages of nature. But in our lifetime, the issue has become how to protect nature from the excesses of human beings.

Our interview, however, ended on a hopeful note. “History shows that at critical moments of the human journey, people have come forward and provided the leadership needed to find solutions. I have high hopes that the pattern will be repeated also this time.”

Frank Shatz lives in Williamsburg, Va. and Lake Placid. His column was reprinted with permission from the Virginia Gazette. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” a compilation of his selected columns.