Good News

“Sure could use a little good news today.”[1]

I’ve definitely been a news junkie at times, and I always keep abreast of current events. This includes listening to talk radio and browsing news sites on the Internet, and I consider myself pretty well informed about political and economic events both at home and abroad.

Few people seem to share that interest. When I’ve asked, those close to me say they feel overwhelmed. The problems feel hopeless and too complex for any one person to do anything about.

I agree with those assessments at least to some degree. The limitation comes from an understanding that sticking our heads in the sand doesn’t solve problems. Ignorance may be bliss, but it’s also not very conducive to a strong democracy.

On a deeper level, however, perhaps the opposite may be true. There are a lot of good reasons to avoid “news” that hypes and sensationalizes all the worst expressions of humanity. From the perspective of democracy, how helpful can it really be for citizens to hear only about what we dislike or how our systems are failing us, to the point that our small efforts seem like “trying to stop a fire with the moisture from a kiss”?[2]

What is even worse is that all this negativity also forms what psychologists call “social proof” and it tends to actually encourage more of the same. If it seems that everyone’s doing it, most people get the idea that it’s normal. The problem here is that what the media is always showing us is exactly the opposite of what everyone is actually doing! They do this precisely because it is “newsworthy” (which really just means unusual). And because of the power of mass communication, we all see it and can easily forget that it’s nowhere near as pervasive in real life as it is on our screens.

And then there’s an even deeper, more dangerous and harder to recognize consequence. All the negativity on our screens goes way beyond just news and includes movies and shows primarily about criminals of one type or another. This focuses our attention, thoughts, and emotions on exactly the things no normal person wants more of in our personal lives.

This aspect of our experience — where we direct our attention, thoughts and emotions — is far more powerful than most of us realize. The power of attraction, as described in the movie The Secret, has been both praised and mocked as delusional New Age garbage. Whatever you think about that, it’s worth considering a very practical and even obvious point: the more you think about bad stuff, the worse you feel. Unless you’re a psychopath.

One way to think about this world we all share is that it contains all the attributes of both heaven and hell. Whether we think consciously about it or not, we create most of our physical environment. Yes, of course the natural world was already here before us and humans didn’t create the planet, but clearly we have created most of the systems and structures we interact with in our daily lives. Most of us in America don’t live off the land or sleep under the stars. Most of our children think food comes from supermarkets and have no idea how it gets there. For a lot of adults, our only exposure to nature is human-created landscapes whizzing by and the sun shining brightly through our car windshields.

The point is that we are the primary creators of the world we experience. What we choose to create, and how we do it, depends a lot on whether our thoughts are preoccupied with things we like that bring us joy or things we don’t that cause fear. That means the more we focus on attributes of heaven, the more of that we build, and vice versa. When we fear criminals, we build prisons. When we appreciate lush grass and summer breezes, we build parks. You get the idea.

So what are we building more of for ourselves — heaven on Earth, or hell?

Here are some signs that we’re building hell:

1. A system of world domination. Even if you ignore the UN, World Bank, IMF, and other so-called global organizations, America itself has built such a system. We don’t like to think of ourselves as an empire, but we seem not to mind calling ourselves exceptional, and the sole superpower. While no one knows for sure how many US military bases exist around the world, estimates range from 500 to over 1,000 in some 60+ countries. Less disputed is that US government agencies have a physical presence in 191 countries, complete with armed guards and “276 fortified buildings that comprise the 169 embassies and other missions of the US Department of State.”[3]

If this doesn’t qualify as a system of world domination, I don’t know what does. Now, this isn’t to say America is an “evil empire” abusing its super powers — it may or may not be, but the reality is that the vastness of its capabilities is undeniable. IF it were ever put to evil use, this world would surely be for all practical purposes a living hell for most people.

2. Concentration and isolation of wealth. For those with enough to provide for their needs, this obviously wouldn’t be a problem — directly, anyway. For everyone else, though, it would be a huge and painful problem. Still, the few who have the wealth tend to separate and isolate themselves from the poor. What that means in practical terms is they lose an opportunity to connect with other people who can enrich their lives in ways that only variety can. They also lose the gifts that loving service to others brings. Helping others and making meaningful contributions to the less fortunate make us feel good and teaches us to appreciate the wonderful things we do have. This is especially true when the contributions are made directly, and not just indirectly (like writing a check). It gives meaning to our lives and relieves the boredom of always getting what we want.

3. Widespread poverty. This is the flip-side of the point above. The more desperate people become just to survive, the more likely they will become a problem for those who do have enough and especially those who seem to have too much. Just imagine all the suffering and death, or take a look at what is actually happening not only in far-off places but even in the heartland. It’s heartbreaking.

4. Mass incarceration. America locks up more of its citizens than any other country (based on total number of prisoners overall) and we’re a close second on a per capita basis (in percentage terms — behind Seychelles of all places, and far above any other industrialized country). At best, this is a tremendous waste of human potential and a huge financial cost for taxpayers to bear. It’s hard to imagine a clearer sign that we as a society are failing ourselves if we’re producing so many people we don’t want walking among us.

5. Draconian sentencing. This is related to the previous point, of course, but it also indicates a certain vindictiveness, a lack of willingness to help lost folks get back on track, and a refusal to deal with the root causes of the problem in the first place. Strike, you’re out! Welcome to hell, where second chances and forgiveness are nowhere to be found.

6. Even for minor violations. It would be bad enough to punish harshly only those guilty of horrific crimes, but we go way beyond even that. It isn’t only violent criminals serving decades-long or even life sentences. We also throw away people who are mentally ill, addicted to various drugs, and otherwise generally non-violent individuals who simply don’t live how we want them to. Some of them have hurt nobody other than themselves. If you can be stripped of your humanity and forced to live in a cage because we don’t like your race, or poverty, or some other aspect of your life, you are probably living in hell.

7. Climate destruction. Fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and other similar natural disasters surely belong to hell, not heaven. If you argue these are acts of God with no human component of responsibility, here’s another menu for you: contaminated and poisoned water that will give you cancer or in some places even catch on fire (water catching on fire! Now there’s a hellish image for you), air blackened by belching smoke to breathe (not just in Beijing), and “food” filled with fat and sugar but no nutrition to eat. A lot more could be said, but that alone is already as clear a description of hell as you probably need.

8. Ecosystem destruction. This is related to but not the same as climate destruction. We aren’t just poisoning and killing off ourselves, we’re sharing that generously with the rest of our planet’s inhabitants. We’ve already sent a lot of species the way of the Dodo and so far we aren’t stopping.

9. Deficient healthcare. Our profit-motivated medical system has a lot of customers and not a lot of interest in real cures. Wellness doesn’t drive up the stock prices of Big Pharma and empty hospital beds don’t send doctors to the Bahamas on vacation. Like most of the points before this, the key thing to understand here is that the problem is how the system is designed to work and not the individual people who work as cogs within it.

10. Lack of access to education. Education offers a path out of hell because it teaches you how to think, especially about non-obvious things like how systems work. Why would the overlords of hell want anyone to understand how they got there and why, if that holds the key to them figuring out how to get out? Without education, people can be duped a lot more easily into just going along with the way things are.

11. Wars and Weapons of Mass Destruction. This might be so obvious it needs no explanation. Murder and mayhem on a mass scale must belong in the realm of hell.

This is not an exhaustive list. We are well on our way to creating hell on Earth.

Now, let’s take a deep breath and turn away from all of that toward the brighter side of the coin.

Here are some signs that we’re building heaven:

1. Organized governance. This just refers to a structure for managing our interactions with one another. It isn’t only about government at the largest scale, but does include it. We are social animals and the actions of an individual can affect others, so we need a way to manage and resolve conflicts (other than just killing each other when we disagree). At its best, this is what government does. It’s really just a set of agreements we make about how we treat each other and what to do if we think we’ve been mistreated. This covers everything from global-scale interactions down to the communities we live in, the places where we work, and even our families. Ultimately we’re looking to make agreements that work to foster cooperation, ideally with as little loss of individual freedom as possible.

We humans have done a lot to create structures that support working together in productive ways and minimizing violence. Some work better than others and we don’t all always agree about where to draw the lines dividing what’s OK from what’s not, but we have come a long way from the chaos of the jungle.

2. Organized means of production. When a lot of people live close together, we need a lot of resources to provide for the means of survival (think food, water, clothing, shelter, etc.) and an efficient and reasonably equitable way to share them. We’ve done a pretty good job figuring out how to produce and access not only the things we need, but also what we want. This is a major accomplishment when you consider everything that goes into it and all the different and competing desires people have. We’ve created a lot of things that make life much easier for us, not to mention fun and pleasant in all kinds of ways. We have gotten very good at finding ways to provide for ourselves and, even if there are ways we could do even better, our resourcefulness has solved a lot of problems that used to vex and kill our ancestors.

3. Appreciation for innovation. We humans are a very smart and creative species, and we’ve grown to really value our ability to make things better as we define that. Overall we’re pretty open to experimenting and trying out new ideas in pretty much all aspects of life. We’re always pushing for more and better, and this forward striving to grow keeps raising the bar in ways that excite and challenge us.

4. Efforts at global cooperation. We’ve gotten so good at working together at more local levels that now we’re even working toward achieving it at the global scale. We increasingly see ourselves as part of a single world, even with all our beautiful variations. We seem to understand that the better we make things for everyone, the better off each of us individually can be. At a minimum, we recognize that reducing conflict on the broadest scale (war, etc.) can free up a lot of energy we can use to get more of the good things we want.

5. Doing our best. If heaven by definition represents the best of everything we can imagine, then a sure sign we’re heading in that direction is when we ourselves are trying to do our best. It could be about anything, really, as long as we are motivated to give our best effort at something we care about. This is different from trying to be “the best” out of everyone at something. That would qualify, of course, but doing your best is more about reaching for the highest heights you currently have the ability, energy, skills, commitment and desire to attain. Accordingly, your best will be different from anyone else’s and even from your own best at a different time. Reaching for it is what makes it a sign of heaven because you probably wouldn’t bother in hell.

6. Music and art exist! These pursuits are not a physical necessity for most of us — though they must surely arise from the deepest yearnings of our souls for beauty and joyful expression. In many ways our culture puts a high value on music and art, considering how much the most successful artists and entertainers can earn for their work (here I would also include athletes, because at their best sports are a physical art). Amateurs also love to engage in these activities, and their prevalence in a culture in general both reflects and contributes to a tangible vision of heaven.

7. Strong communication network. This network represents our literal connection of each one of us to every other. It allows us to share ideas and evidence of best practices in solving difficult problems. This kind of sharing (and the very system that allows it) is a bedrock of heaven, even if some among us choose to abuse it. We can all participate in sharing our visions for the kind of world we’d like to live in, and hopefully create a shared vision we’re willing to work together to bring into reality. What wonders might we make?

8. Good travel network. Our planet is quickly becoming one interconnected world. In addition to being able to talk with people across the globe, we can physically go and connect in person, too, within just a few hours. This has never before been possible and although not everyone can presently access this opportunity, as the network continues to grow and prices come down it will just keep getting easier.

9. Intentional improvement. As individuals and collectively, we care a lot about improving everything from the condition of our physical surroundings to the quality of our relationships to our personal effectiveness in the world. There is always something we can identify as lacking or undesirable and we want it to get better. Regardless of how much effort and commitment you might be willing to put into making changes, you can probably think of at least five things off the top of your head right now that you’re wanting or working to improve. If not, you’re probably taking some kind of medication, legal or otherwise, to treat depression (or some other ailment). And if you are depressed, as so many Americans sadly are, that’s probably caused at least in part by the difference between what your life is actually like and how you thought it would be when you were younger. Still, the only reason to take pills, powder or alcohol is because you want to feel better. The desire for continuous improvement is heaven-sent.

10. Entrepreneurial attitude. We Americans are deeply committed to the ideas of free enterprise, self-reliance, and capitalism as an economic engine to create prosperity. Small businesses provide a lot of jobs and self-employment is a strong and growing source of income for a lot of people. This is a natural outgrowth from a “can-do” attitude, and our optimism, especially perhaps when others see it as baseless, propels us to ever greater heights despite the risks involved. This is very closely tied to faith, of course, and we admire those who persist through sheer determination to build what did not exist before. This willingness to shake things up and attempt the heretofore “impossible” is an aspect of freedom and creation that could only come from heaven.

This list is no more complete than the previous one, although I confess it was quite a bit more difficult and significantly more fun to compile. We have also been making some great strides toward creating heaven on Earth.

Right now, the most important question is: Which list do you want to help expand? This is no idle or rhetorical question. Every human being on the planet is a co-creator in this world we all share, consciously or not, willingly or not, powerfully or not. Part of how you participate is determined by your physical actions, of course. Some people seek to serve others, while others are more focused on taking for themselves. Some spend a lot of time thinking about these questions, while others put every last ounce of energy into just staying alive (and a few, tragically, give up even trying).

Wherever you find yourself on the spectrum, the other way you participate in this co-creation is through your thoughts and feelings. How you choose to direct your attention — and that is a choice, and one that nobody else can ever make for you — shapes your attitude, your mood, and your willingness to engage in the game of life. If you choose to withdraw, it means that your voice and your vote go toward continuing things exactly as they are now.

What do you think could happen if you put a small amount of effort into making a more active choice to focus your attention on good news or ignore the bad? This is a very practical way to incorporate love more fully into our daily lives. Maybe we all could use a little good news today.

[1] “A Little Good News” from the album, A Little Good News by Anne Murray.

[2] “The Change” from the album, Fresh Horses by Garth Brooks.

[3] Julian Assange, The Wikileaks Files (London/New York, NY: Verso, 2015), p. 3.

NOTE: The first 3 chapters were published to Medium on 7/12/17. Further chapters will be published every Wednesday until the complete book is available here. Thank you for reading! If you would like access to the entire book without delay, please look for the paperback, Kindle, and Audible versions on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/This-Love-You-Kimberly-Carlton/dp/0692718079/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1499881330&sr=8-11&keywords=this+love+is+for+you