No, The World Doesn’t Suck
This might come as a surprise — but the world is actually a better place than it used to be. I keep reading all the articles and social media posts about how 2017 has been even worse than 2016, and while I can relate, I’m just not buying into the whole idea of famous people dying and wars and suffering and election/political insanity all making this year horrible while the ones before had been awesome.
Not even when I just read yesterday that Hawaii tested its nuclear warning siren for the first time since the end of the Cold War.
And the reason why I feel it’s so important to think about this is because we are hugely responsible for how things are gonna go forward. Things are not just happening. We are all on social media, writing, reading, selecting posts we share — we are all part of creating this ambiance of doom that I’m just tired of.
As for 2016, Bowie is forever one of my heroes. And Alan Rickman — dammit. But you know what? People die. And as we get older, more and more of the people who have been our heroes are going to die.
And then, 2017 — my god — the US (pretty much top influencer of the world) has a president and entourage reminiscent of pre-WW2 dictatorships. Just to mention one historic period and one specific historic event, as a full list would take weeks to compile.
Too Much News — So, What Are We Gonna Do About it?
I happened to read something interesting last night — from Gertrude Stein —she writes in her book Reflections on the Atom Bomb (in 1946):
“Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.”
Information overload. Not the first time in history we are dealing with this issue. Of course, it’s different. Everything always is. Perhaps it’s on a larger scale now. Or perhaps we just don’t know how it felt comparatively then. Or during other times in history.
If you’re geek enough to get on scholar.google.com and type in “news information overload”, you’ll see that the subject has been researched for decades.
So no, this is not breaking news.
Let’s Focus on Possible Ways Forward
While the article above doesn’t really offer solutions (and still treats media as something that is mostly created and maintained by journalists), it is good to see that the focus is on finding solutions.
And we are all part of figuring out possible ways forward. Sure — the way we keep sharing and commenting on social media platforms without much awareness of how important our choices are has proven that humans are not currently able to take in and process as much information as we are inundated with. I can see that.
You know what else I see? More and more people caring about what’s going on in the world. More and more artists are standing up for democracy. More and more influential companies are considering whether or not to support a system that might drive the world further from the promise of a future that offers more freedom, more sharing of wealth and information than previous societies did.
Optimistic? Idealistic? Maybe. Or just a realization that we have way more power than we think. And with power comes responsibility. It’s a gift, really. Let’s use it wisely.
Would love it if this was a conversation starter. What do you think?
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“Make no mistake- you can change things. Question everything, take nothing for granted; argue with all received ideas, don’t respect what does not deserve respect; speak your mind, don’t censor yourself; use your imagination and express what it tells you to express. These are the weapons of the mind.”
― Salman Rushdie
