New Horizons
With the American Presidential election looming like a bomb coming over the horizon it feels like a good time to reflect. It seems like people hate each other, worse, fear each other on the internet. We are afraid of each other across the political aisle. X, Elon Musk’s playpen, has become the wasteland which killed discourse. Maybe it was already beyond saving when he acquired it and his dangerous tweets and dank memes only expedited the process. This only feels like background noise to the ever growing list of terrible things all happening at once throughout the world.
I had a good conversation with author Dennis Lewycky today at the Forks in Winnipeg. A conclusion we found along the way was something like this: as we struggle today we must bear in mind there has always been struggle for all people, always, throughout all of time. Throughout the eons humans have existed it has never been easy. Every one, literally every person who has ever lived on this earth, has faced immense struggles which may have appeared impossible to overcome and sometimes impossible won the day. Cave people survived the elements and the beasts that hunted them, the most scientifically advanced 15th century global citizens lived to an average age between 30 and 45. Yet here we are despite every thing they faced.
We are durable and our brain is our greatest asset, our minds. These are the factors which give me hope when it seems our collective backs are against the wall. It may be the 11th hour but we have seen hard times before and we will surely see many more to come. As bad as it seems, it may get worse. And worse still has a cavernous pit beneath it. How bad it can get is immeasurable and I suppose it is infinite.
Where there is bad, as there currently seems to be in every direction, there is opportunity. There is opportunity to reduce the harm in the world even just a little. We each have reach, no matter how little or how large. I cannot stop Vladimir Putin from being a treacherous thug but I can help my family and my friends. I cannot prevent the ice caps from melting but I can reduce my personal footprint, consciously. I cannot catch every person who falls but I can be there to help those nearby. I can do something. We all can.
We can learn and we can grow but today the waters of knowledge are muddied with ignorance and viral tweets. Be careful, ask questions and when you seek answers set down your bias and look for the Truth, not the answer which satiates the impulse for affirmation. A little bit every day and maybe we can keep from letting the bad be worse. We can’t fix all the problems of the world but we can at least see how much is in our reach.