Hope or Despair?

Three Principles to Believe In.

Everybody is worried about everything. You are worried about everything.

Being stuck in the endless throes of a global pandemic is just adding accelerant to the worries already smoldering in your mind.

Hey, I’m with you, literally and figuratively. Personally, I used to worry about species extinction, the razing of the rainforests, climate change, and hordes of humans overpopulating the planet — exponentially consuming its finite resources and making it impossible for future generations to live healthy, happy lives.

But now? Now I’m just worried about despair. How do you and I ward off this existential sinking feeling?

Especially when everyone seems to have a case of it, even though it seems to manifest itself in very different ways.

I’ve asked myself if I’m just projecting onto others. Maybe my personal despair is coloring my perception of others? Maybe my family, my friends, and the strangers who populate all the various media platforms I frequent are not as distressed as I am by the direction everything is heading.

I’ve come to the conclusion that almost all of the independent-thinking homo sapiens on this planet are as deeply disconcerted as I am. And, yes, I’m aware that independent-thinking is in the eye of the beholder — or more aptly, in the brain of the thinker.

How each and every individual human being balances the dictates of science and religion, greed and generosity, and — perhaps most importantly — hope and despair will ultimately decide the fate of all of us, collectively.

As someone with a degree in Education, I obviously believe in the importance of teaching and learning. All my life, I’ve believed in the primacy of education. But now? Now I see that it is the only tool that can save us from ourselves.

Society has to change. We all agree on that. But we struggle on a shared destination. Or a shared medium of change.

Are these insurmountable obstacles? Only if we humans cannot agree with each other on three overarching principles:

1. Science Must Trump Religion.

2. Generosity Must Trump Greed.

3. Hope Must Triumph Over Despair.

And it cannot be just a simple majority who endorses this list. I believe it has to be the preponderance of the entire population that must ascribe to these tenets.

Having read this list, do you think we have a chance? Do you believe people are capable of seeing science and religion as separate spheres? Is it possible for people to agree that when, occasionally, they do come in contact, science must trump religion — for the good of us all?

Having read this list, do you believe that the vast accumulation of personal wealth and power is ultimately destructive to the person who has it and actually harms the many in society who do not? Or is generosity a distasteful foreign word that you reject because you believe you earned all of your vast fortune and deserve every bauble?

Having read this list, do you recognize that you cannot, like the proverbial rat, abandon this ship? Rats who abandon ship wisely slip off into the water and swim desperately for a new shore. But for us, there is no new shore. There are no other planets to populate, no space seeds to sow.

We must agree that extremism is killing us. Extremes of politics and religion and wealth and power need to be viewed not only as suspicious but as the crux of the problem.

Extremists who lack generosity of spirit and mind must be seen as the culprits they are. Culprits that even-handed, independent thinkers should avoid like the plague. Which is really, really, really hard to do right now.

Mask up, folks. Wear hope and generosity like superheroes wearing their iconic masks and capes. See the villains for who they are: Those who worship at the altar of extremism. Teach your children to connect the dots and see where all forms of greed and intolerance lead.

Our personal priorities must align with societal and planetary survival. Religious and personal creeds that undermine or threaten the welfare of others must be rejected — lock, stock, and barrel.

It’s hard to remain civil and hopeful in a time of planetary plague, but you are doing it not just for yourself. This big world actually depends upon it. Call it the butterfly effect, call it whatever you like. Your day-to-day choices, large and small, affect us all.

Be measured, be reasonable, be wise. If enough of us agree on that, there is indeed a reason for hope.