Hannah Arendt: U.S. politics are going to change dramatically over the next 5 years. You're looking at a period of increasingly authoritarian policies.
Me: What happens after that?
Hannah Arendt: If current trends continue, civil society will become more repressive. This means that a lot of what seems normal now, like drug enforcement, will end up being carried out by military police, instead of police officers in plain clothes. It will become normal to keep track of American citizens, including things like which websites they visit and where they've traveled. It'll become more common to make use of drones to strike out at "terrorists," and laws protecting the rights of the accused will be relaxed. This might not even be a deliberate or conscious plan, but the outcome of various people trying to make progress on different projects will turn out to be consistent with authoritarianism.
Me: Is there an upshot?
Hannah Arendt: Actually, there's one positive thing I can mention. The American middle class will likely collapse in the next 5 years. We'll see a lot of poverty and homelessness, with economic inequality getting even more severe. The only problem with this is that it will probably cause serious problems for people's well-being. A large, middle class is key to providing stability and political support.
Me: That doesn't sound good. What's positive about that?
Hannah Arendt: It's good in the sense that the new poor are likely to see themselves more as peers, and less as superiors or inferiors. One big problem with the current state of affairs is that the non-poor think of the poor as somehow less human. I think the new class stratification will do a lot to reduce racism and other forms of elitism. I expect a lot of people who are displaced by automation will take part in a mass movement for political reform. And I think there will be a lot of technological advancement. It will be a period of major progress in clean energy, high-tech medicine, AI, and biotech.