this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2023
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This kind of thinking feels like just cherry picking the good things to focus on, which sometimes isn't the worst coping mechanism to have but in this context I think it just leads to complacency. The fact is the general trajectory of the world isn't good even though some progressive ways of thinking have been normalized in some places, we could be doing much much better, we just choose not to.
You can either count blessings or curses. Both you can probably count endlessly if looked at hard enough. I cannot deny that threats loom over my life such as climate change, totalitarian thinking, gun violence, and a whole host of other ills that I feel completely incapable of impacting. Consider me the boiled frog. I cannot live my life in constant anxiety and fear. I have good things, good things happen to me, today I can breathe, today I can walk. I woke up in my own bed with a healthy body. Tomorrow I am unlikely to be blown up by an artillery shell or to executed by some brown shirt goon of an evil regime.
I can hold both the evils of the world and the good of it in my mind at once. I agree one must not grow complacent at the things that go on. But I also must not become paralyzed by the overwhelming number of things going wrong. At least that is me.