To be hopeful in bad times

[G_j]

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”


― Howard Zinn

[G_j]

1. hello

?

[el_bryanto]

2. It's an interesting argument

But it depends on what you think Human Nature is. Many have a very low opinion of Human Nature in general, others have a low opinion of Americans. If you think we are basically savagely cruel creatures with little empathy and low intelligence, unable to really see the big picture or to work together, than there might be brief moments of sanity, but those are far overshadowed by years of insanity.

I'd like to think that Humans can be and in many case are better than that.

Bryant

[G_j]

3. I think most human beings have a myriad of potentials

but are prone to go with the prevailing
trends.

[BelgianMadCow]

4. What an uplifting post, thank you! I just read a couple books that relate to this

and for example, detailed research in primates shows that they behave in a collaborative way, if the environment stimulates that. But if the environment is set up differently, they will act competitive. So there is no inherent nature, but the potential for both.

The other book had to do with identity, and makes the case that there is NO such thing as human identity, unless and until the environment puts boundaries on our consciousness. And once that happens, an individual identity is as much a mirror of the outside as of the inside.

A third book, called "Borderline Times", details how aspects of current society lead to various psychiatric disorders in people, and calls our society itself borderline.

And all of these things bring me to the conclusion that the current system (the neverending and unforgiving quest for profit) is making us all sick. Here in Belgium, a million (out of ten) people take antidepressants. One could call all these people sick. I say the system is sick.

The flip side of that coin is that should we reject the system, we may find ourselves in another reality rather quickly. There's this notion that competition is a good system for a species that is expanding in a large world, with lots of room to spare. But once the species has grown to the same size as the world so to speak, competition becomes counterproductive, and the species is much better suited with collaboration. I believe we are at the dawn of that age, with people becoming more and more aware of "the others" - and how they're not very different.

[G_j]

5. thanks

for sharing that. I have worked with Borderline Personality Disorder people as part of my job, and taken classes about this.
The idea of our society manifesting the disorder is certainly compelling. I plan on reading that book. Thanks!

[BelgianMadCow]

6. Unfortunately, that "Borderline Times" book is only available in dutch

I'm sorry to say. It did sit pretty high in the non-fiction top 10, which I found very encouraging, so who knows there may be a translation in the future.