2017: an year in review

How we can raise again from the lowest lows in 2018 and later~

This year 2017 was a strange year.

I tried to spend a great deal of time trying to understand what made this year so utterly dark. As a person ages it tends to have more negative outlooks for the world, but this is not what made this year one of the worst for me and many of us. This year was not just strange, it just showed us how human nature and human limitations can resurface again to bring the worst in all of us.

These are some of the trends I noticed:

• segregation, racism, homophobia, nationalism, and in general the fear of “the different” reigns strong. I often thought these diseases were dying, but ignorance is bringing them back in full force. It is in our nature to fear what is different and people that are not like us, but nothing that a bit of knowledge and understanding cannot cure.
• US politics: did you notice the cycle of bad news towards the end of the weeks? Mainly Fridays. It is a bit like in the corporate world, where Fridays are the days to bring in bad news: lay-offs for example. It is a tactic to make people helpless and unable to seek help, as most business are closed, and instead force them to accept bad news
• fake news: what news sources should we trust? This is a tough one. Most of us do not realize how much hearing something on TV or on a public screen makes us gullible. We all attach an immediate authority tag to anyone who speaks on public channels, and we immediately believe most of what we hear.
• social networks are a powerful way to share news, but are all the news a fair description of reality? There are always multiple sides of one story. If you pay attention you will see that news are used to control your mind, and even positive news can be told in ways that drive you to positive or negative feelings. You need to realize this and weight in any news you get. We cannot trust anyone on social networks, or better, we have to find what sources we can trust. Even friendly voices sometimes can drag us into the negative, by depicting unbiased news as biased.
• people do not talk. Dialogue is rarefied in the era of social network, computers, TVs, video-games. It seems counter-intuitive that with social networks we are more segregated, but it happens that by spreading our attention to a large number of people that are not in our immediate surroundings, we often feel as if we do not need to engage as much with the people that are around us, and that can make more of the difference for us. We do not talk to our neighbors because we can talk to our old neighbor across the country, or the globe. That is great that we can keep in touch with anyone, but comes at a price
• time is our most valuable currency. Forget Bitcoin. We only have ~30,000 days in our lives. Our time matters more than we think. If we engage in some activities, we neglect others.

2018?

But nobody likes negativity, so we ought to find way to look forward to a better future:

• the best way is to turn negativity into action. This is not easy as negative feelings bring in rage and much helplessness, but we all ought to find the strengths inside of us to raise and fight for what we believe
• we cannot win all battles. We need to consider all point of views: sometimes bad news are not as bad as the information channels wants us to believe. They may be just a drop of water into a pool, or a sea. Ask yourself, what is the impact of this decision in the grand scheme of things?
• do not compromise with your ideals. You are who you are, and your beliefs define you. You cannot deny them or hide them, as doing so will negate your existence and impede your progress. Fight the battles that matter the most, and join people that share your passion.
• do not trust many if not all sources. Always ask yourself: where did this information come from? What channels if conveying it? To what mean and what goal? What is the audience of this channel? If you do so, you will may get a glimpse of the “information” behind the news
• “Do not do to other what you do not want done to you” is a simple way to distance yourself from discrimination of all kinds. Put yourself in the shoes of the people you interact with. Ask yourself: “will my action or word affect them”, look at the signs from their interaction with you. Often you will see how what you say or do affects people and find ways to always make them feel satisfied with you. Remember: people will give you their best if they feel you care for them and have their interest in mind. If you want the best for you, you ought to give your best to others. It is as simple as that, always!
• I was very happy to see many women speak about their condition and discrimination publicly. As a man of white race, I often fail to see how much discrimination there is around us all the time. We have to be more sensitive to other people feelings, and notice those small negative interactions that make people uncomfortable and stress the difference between people. Often we make discriminative comments without noticing, generalizing behavior: “people X always do Y”, but if we sit and think, we know this cannot be always true. So we have to treat people as they are, independent of broad generalization that stress differences. Rather we should focus on what makes us the same, and one. Focus on common problems, on how human limits and how to make the best of our lives with our limitations in mind. This is what we need to do to break the barriers between rich and poor, women and men, different races, ages, color, habits, etc.
• In general an happy life is when your life makes a difference to the people around you. We all have to focus on making their lives as enjoyable as we can, without hurting our own. People around us will often neglect to see our efforts, but with time, and in some circumstances, they will notice and they will let us know how we make them feel. At those moments, all our work is repaid with a warm heart. And that is true happiness. Being happy with the people around you.
• We cannot always be happy, there are days where we cannot change things, or it is hard to do so. We need to do damage control on those days. Do not try too hard, do not press to hard, just relax and wait. It does not rain all the time. We cannot easily make people happy if we are not, on those gloomy days. We have to find activities we like, that bring us back into the positive light, and then we can continue to make a difference. This has been often hard in 2017. The news and prospects made most day a a gloomy day. Our relationships suffered. This is a down spiral we ought to avoid. Take the time. Think. Do what you like. Find happiness around you, and then share it as much as you can.
• Do not fight with people around you all the time. It is true we cannot change people, but we can make them understand. And slowly they will want to change, for the best of all of us. It takes effort, like teaching a little child. But if you do it every day, it will work out. Again, find what makes you happy together, and put aside the rough corners. Time will grind them to a pleasurable surface.
• we need to have more dialogue, not just with the people like us, but especially with the people that are different: we cannot learn new ideas if we do not open to what we do not know.
• meet more people that are not like you. Make an effort to understand how they feel and why they make choices. This is hard, we all live in bubbles. We ought to make our pop and get out of it, and have others do the same. It takes effort. But when rich and poor lived together, they inspired each others for the good. When we live in bubbles, we only think of “us” and “them”. Dialogue more with different people, so you can become a better version of yourself.
• Find the time to make a difference for yourself and people around you. Do not work for the whole world and then forget where you are and where you came from. There ought to be a balance with our greater goals and our families and circles.

Stay positive. Create. Share. Be happy. Make others happy.

This is what I wish for 2018 and beyond.

PS: this blog post will update…