No matter where we look, we find ourselves exhausted and pained by a range of situations in the world today. We hesitate to speak about the most volatile because there might be unintended consequences. Thinking about such matters can cause us to loose our mental bearings as we find ourselves on different sides of the questions the situations raise. I thought I would try to offer some tried and true advice about how to navigate the world at this time.
Read widely. A significant amount of the shouting and property defacement comes from ignorance, from a reliance upon a tweet or post that can only be described as lacking information that would inform one’s perspective. Whether we’re talking about political races, courtroom dramas, or even the breakdowns in the three branches of government, it’s helpful to read or watch credible sources of information. Journalists and reporters are always looking for new angles on a continuing event, which sometimes leads to the mawkish “how did you feel?” line of questioning, but it’s possible still to find good questions asked and solid analyses offered. [Once we publish our last student research note in December, we are going to bring back the “News” section in ASA News & Notes. We’ll be looking for unusual perspectives on a range of topics in ethics, technology, and society and I’ll be commenting on each news story, podcast, or video that we introduce.]
Formulate your own thoughts. For some it might mean turning to an artificial intelligence (AI) tool in order to figure out what you think, but I assure you that sitting down with a piece of paper or a journal and taking the time to sort out mixed impressions you might have of a problem or issue is personally satisfying once you’ve picked up the habit. Looking back over the years at views I held at a particular point in time show me just how my thinking has advanced or stalled out. The other advantage of writing down your thoughts is that it’s easier to then have a discussion with someone else about what you think precisely because you’ve written about it, not just looked at a Tik Tok video.
Show yourself. My faculty colleagues have mentioned how difficult it is to get freshmen to actually participate in a class they’re teaching. This lack of engagement sometimes gets attributed to the pandemic years, where students we teach now in college completed their high school experience online, isolated from the very environment that might have taught them how to engage with one another and discuss topics. I’ve heard stories of no response, even after 10 minutes, to a question the teacher was asking; or students getting up and leaving class early; or students not ever appearing in class but asking for letters of recommendation. We ask a lot of our faculties, but having to coax focus and polite behavior out of students who (at least in theory) came to learn is a heavy lift.
At work. The challenge is a bit different in the corporate workplace. Employees often find that their managers have checked out mentally, and wonder if they should go around the manager to report sexist behavior or abusive daily commentary. The situation is harder to figure out if the employee or the manager is working remotely and time to meet in person to discuss such challenges Is hard to find – running into someone you wanted to discuss a matter (rather than on paper) is hard when there are few physical meetings. These are some of the reasons that firms want their people back in the office at least three days a week, but there’s more work to do to figure out new ways of handling these problems, especially if morale is low. In either the academic or the corporate workplace, seek out colleagues. It’s easier to understand the culture and do your work with with colleagues.
Avoid despair. You’ve got so many opportunities to observe or create optimism, without giving way to complaint or desperation. Optimism is not some external perspective imposed on you when it happens. It come from bearing down, being determined to have an impact – whether it’s through a donation you’re making, or a volunteer opportunity you’ve found. Sometimes optimism comes from observing the thoughtful and generous behavior of others to those in need. Optimism can propel you forward and is a highly regarded antidote to depression which stems from all the things that are wrong in the world.
Live on the edge of your seat. With all the pain and disorder in the world, take steps to improve yourself and find optimism more often, especially in a world that is so on edge at this time. The first place to give back is to yourself, to find a measure of peace in setting and achieving a goal. It’s in this effort that anxiety recedes and we begin to acknowledge that we might learn from one another. When I taught, I made sure that my students could see both sides of an argument, and that they could put themselves in another’s shoes. In my ethics courses, I stressed what the artist William Blake had said, which is to be careful what you wish for and what your actions might reap -- that you become what you behold, what you are doing. The last stanza of his poem “The Grey Monk” says:
“The hand of Vengeance found the Bed
To which the Purple Tyrant fled
The iron hand crushd the Tyrants head
And became a Tyrant in his stead.”
I hope you find these pieces of advice helpful. None of them will improve relations between the U.S. and China or bring an immediate two-party solution to Israel and Gaza, save Ukraine from Putin’s encroachments, or save the American people from the incessant coverage of former President Trump, even before he stands criminal trial in federal court in 2024, just months before the next presidential election. But it may just cause you to reject false labels and to look more deeply for the facts of the matter rather than letting the masters of disinformation and misinformation at work on social media to divide us into elites and the “basket of deplorables.” We are all human beings, entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”