I hate seeing people project negativity, particularly through sweeping generalizations about the state of the world or the decline of humanity. Posting thoughts on social networks about "losing faith in humanity" is especially unproductive. I agree that the world is pretty fucked up in plenty of respects, but nothing is perfect. We might be shitty, but we're still so young! There's still so much room for growth, so I don't know why people give up so easily.
Furthermore, each of us has the ability and the duty to improve this place we call home. So many people seem to have this mindset of, "I'm only one person; I can't possibly make a difference." That's just stupid. It's this mentality that could really destroy us-- not the declining health of the environment, not the uneven distribution of wealth, not hunger, not nuclear warfare, but the idea that one person can do nothing to help. Sure, one person might not be able to stop global warming alone. One person might not be able to discontinue all wrongs in the world. But, one drop of rain can work with many to turn a weak stream into a raging river in a matter of minutes.
If each of us just focused on a single task that was helpful to a few people-- just one task-- so much more could be accomplished! Let's say about 75% of the world's population is over 14 years of age, and about 10% of people suffer from mental illnesses (I'd say that leaves plenty of room for error); that still leaves 65% of the world's population-- or approximately 4,550,000,000 people-- to make a difference. 4.5 billion is a big number, and to say that that's an understatement would be an insult to your intelligence. It's such a big number, it's difficult to imagine or conceptualize it at all.
That alone should give many people at least a little hope. Yes, there are plenty of those people that have horrible intentions, or maybe don't have the mental capacity to do much more than support themselves. There are plenty of other statistics that could be turned against me in this argument. But everyone has the capacity to do at least a little good.
Yes. Yes... just... yes. I know I sometimes think to myself "I've lost faith in humanity," but what I really mean is "I've lost faith in a few select people that I thought I really cared about." We ARE so young and things can really only improve, so it's not like there's anything that we should desperately avoid like that, I guess.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reminding me, my dear. Perhaps we can make a difference after all, slowly, slowly, but surely.