Recently some of my students wrote on the topic: Describe something you want to better understand about the world. The majority wrote on a similar theme. They want to better understand why humans behave as they do. Why do we have so much crime, violence, discrimination, poverty, war? My students want answers.
I understand my students’ bleak view of their fellow humans. This past New Year’s Eve 11 people in Dade county alone fell victims to bullets, gravity and sociopaths. We watch endless cruelty and barbarity on the news. I at times have a pessimistic view of the human race and wonder whether we’ll last another 100 years. Evidence abounds that we haven’t evolved much over 50, 000 years.
The images from the battlefront in Baghdad look tame compared to what the Arabs continue to do to Blacks in Darfur. No words can describe it. We live in 2007 and superstition still guides people’s lives. The world remains a dark, cruel place as Maximus assessed for Marcus Aurelius over 2000 years ago.
I can only offer a simple layman’s answer to my students-human nature. Perhaps things happen as they should? Perhaps the psychologists have the estimates wrong and more sociopaths live among us than we can imagine? Perhaps no matter how many laws we write or committees we form most humans will remain savages? As Prof. Keating said, “It was always thus and thus it shall always be.” I suggest to my students that outside small pockets in the United States and other places that have adopted the Anglo-Saxon tradition of respect for the individual most groups will always treat each other cruelly. I don’t see evidence in history to prove otherwise.
Most days however I remain an optimist. How could I not? I live better than kings did 100 years ago. Things look bad but we don’t have to suffer Weltschmerz. We live in the worst of times but we also live in the best of times.
Today exist more opportunities to reach more diverse goals than at any time in history. You can set any goal and reach it. Only your dreams, desires, choices and intelligence limit you. You can even invent your future thanks to technology. In the United States alone today live 5.2 million millionaires and over 500 billionaires. Why can’t you be one of these? A million dollars in the bank alleviates a lot of pessimism.
We see horror on T.V. because newscasts thrive on horror. Few people care to see planes land safely. Most want to see the plane that crashed. We don’t see much of the good news. Today more people (and a higher percentage of the population) live in democracies and participate in free markets than ever in history. The Chinese have a long way to go as communist tyranny gives way to liberty but in India they’ve almost completely rejected socialism for free markets and per capita income increases monthly.
We live in the information age with all the technology, news and knowledge this implies. A lot of useless information exists but we can consume much useful information if we choose intelligently. We must develop and refine our “crap detectors”. No one can keep secret the keys to wealth, health or anything else you want to know. If you master the trivium: language, logic and history you’ll learn how to find, evaluate and use information. As you gain good knowledge you develop a sense of proportion and a brighter outlook.
Practice your individuality and don’t fall victim to “group think”. Most groups force individuals to succumb to the majority. Individuals start to think they can not make it without the group. Group leaders thrive on power and convince individuals to view the glass as half empty and only through the group can we fill our glasses. The independent turn dependent.
Just as we should consume useful information we need to surround ourselves with useful people. I try to avoid negative people. They drain my energy, put me in a bad mood, make me angry and distort my view of the world. I surround myself with positive people and I try to bring positive energy into other’s lives. I always remind myself and others, “If someone else did it why can’t I?”
Take action and you’ll feel better. Right a wrong! Do something about it if you see a problem. A problem equals opportunity. Run for congress and change a law. Write a better one. If you get elected see me. I have many suggestions. Perhaps we can extend the death penalty to sociopaths who fire their guns in celebration? Pessimists complain and whine. Optimists fix, change, create, invent, lead, contribute, discover, explore, laugh, empathize and show gratitude. The good we see around us we owe to optimists like Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Edison, Queen Elizabeth I, Andrew Carnegie, Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
You don’t have to go it alone to do great things or make great changes. You can stand on the shoulders of great people. If they did great things why can’t you?
Copyright Bert Lorenzo, 2007
