That's according to Zogby, president and CEO of Zogby International, a polling company that canvasses about half a million people every year to gauge public opinion on everything from the best laundry detergent to the most promising political candidate.

In The Way We'll Be, Zogby draws on his company's vast network of surveys and polls to try and predict popular trends and attitudes for the near future. Specifically, he seeks to chart general shifts in the American attitude toward a host of issues, from materialism to religion, from environmentalism to the latest take on the American dream.

His results point to a populace much less taken with the traditional signs of status and success. In survey after survey, he finds respondents more apt to be satisfied with less material wealth and more spiritual satisfaction.

Zogby's data also shows that the current generation of 18- to 29-year- olds, what Zogby terms "first globals," are more than willing to make adjustments in the face of dwindling natural resources, threats to the environment and international tensions. His results reveal a young generation tempered by the immediacy and inclusiveness of the Internet, one that's more likely to hold broad and inclusive spiritual views in lieu of rigid definitions of religion and one that's more willing to cooperate on the international stage to find solutions to pressing problems.

Best tidbit: Zogby draws on polls showing more moderate political trends among evangelical voters and a shift toward spirituality across the political spectrum as symptoms of a larger domestic movement. "A new American dream characterized by lower expectations, less want and more civility has begun to emerge; and as that has happened, a new American consensus is being born."

Pros: Zogby's exhaustive data points to heartening trends at work in the U.S. As the cost of living balloons and traditional sources of energy begin to founder, it seems the American populace is willing to innovate, cooperate and sacrifice to find solutions.

Cons: Zogby spares few details in describing his polling procedures, an element that tends to obscure the larger messages of his data.

Final word: A fascinating glimpse into how we'll be.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/14/the-way-well-be/