I’ve deliberately avoided the news these past few weeks. And not because I choose a naive view over a realistic view of the world. I don’t think the world will become a better place just because I om and wave incense in the morning after doing a couple of downward dogs. The domination of Corona-doom and protest-gloom in the news got me thinking that this isn’t the way to live my best life. So, I decided to take literally the recurring news that advises it’s too early to tell or in a few months we’ll have a clearer idea, and so decided I will check back in with the news when the scientists, the economists and the reporters have some clarity to report on this chaos. This could be some time away yet. In the meantime, this news-free new normal, it’s working out quite well. I’ve been spending more time in the here and now, living reality, and I am taking lead from the teenagers, who can’t seem to think more than a few moments ahead. For them, it’s all about simply hanging out with friends, being friendly, and living life like it is one long summer holiday.
This break from news has been so positive, it reminded me a of book I read last year called Factfulness: Ten reasons why we’re wrong about the world and why things are better than you think. The book busts myths with facts, and is – for the most part – positive. The author, Hans Rosling, shows that, as it turns out, the world – for all its imperfections – is in a much better state than we might think. He points out the obvious that we fail to fully acknowledge; that news is about exceptions, it’s about things that go wrong, stories that shock and wow, which usually means the subject du jour is corruption, terrorism, looting, violence, crises etc. It also means we are learning about the unusual things, the cruelty in the world, the stuff of fiction, and things that make us worry. Not what’s actually going on. What is so often missing from the news is all the friendly stuff, human stories about good deeds and positive change. The non-fiction that doesn’t sell papers or make any money. Rosling also says that when we worry about everything all the time, instead of embracing a worldview based on science and facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. We miss out on reality.
D recommended ‘Factfulness’ to me, he found it in Gatesnotes reading list. Bill Gates described this book is “an indespensible guide to thinking clearly about the world.” Is it not a contradiction when the world we live in makes clarity harder to find than fiction? It was from this list that D found another book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind which became one of our all-time favoutite reads. The author/historian Yuval Noah Harari explores how the Sapiens secret of success is large-scale flexible cooperation in communities, which has made us masters of the world. Our friendliness is our ultimate attribute. The other truly unique trait of Sapiens is our ability to create and believe fiction. All other animals use their communication system to describe reality. We use our communication system to create new realities. Of course, not all fictions are shared by all humans, but at least one has become universal in our world, and this is money. Dollar bills have absolutely no value except in our collective imagination, but everybody believes in the dollar bill. We also have an amazing capacity to believe in contradictory things. For example, one may believe in an omnipotent and benevolent God, but somehow excuse Him from all the suffering in the world. Our contradictory beliefs give us the capacity to behave in contradictory ways. Are we a cruel, selfish inward-looking species? Or are we friendly, empathic and caring? We are capable of being both.
Dutch historian author Rutger Bregman, in his hopeful book ‘Humankind’, considers that there is a connection between humans’ friendliness and our cruelty; the loyalty we are evolved to feel for our community contributes to some of our darker sides. He argues that most people are pretty decent deep down, and the biggest misconception about humankind is that people are selfish, and that it is our devotion to our tribe that sometimes gets misguided, or worse, ends up being our biggest mistakes. Inward looking ideals may start with well-meaning intentions, but end up as ill outcomes. It’s a positive outlook, that we are all truly kind at the core. Bregman suggests that when we believe that humans are selfish, then we start to bring out the worst in each other, because we start designing our whole society around that idea. He suggests we should change the way we live and how we organize society. Should we then, not only avoid negative news, but proactively share more good news about the friendliness of humanity?
A psychologist called Marie Lindegaard is doing research into a revolutionary finding called the ‘bystander effect’ She shows that in more than 1000 videos of real footage of real humans observing real catastrophes, more often than not, in 90% of all cases, people help each other, and people are saved from the situation. The Corona crisis itself brought out an explosion of altruism, where people started asking ‘how can I help?’ as neighbours are helping neighbours, people are clapping for carers, and humans the world over are cooperating to save each other’s lives.
If we are truly the kindest, most selfless species, how do we capitalize on this? How do we ensure that devotions and loyalties don’t become misguided? Could misogynists have patriarchy expanded to include all humankind? Could communists have their devotion to economics directed towards the benefit of the entire globe? Could racists have their intense loyalty to their tribe extended to include and protect all of humanity?
It would be good, would it not, to live in a world that believes in the goodness of humanity, and does not dismiss this concept as naïve? Perhaps the cynics are the ones who are naïve, because they focus on the exceptions, instead of the vast majority of science and facts.
The other upside of avoiding the news is the extra time that is freed up. Today I use my time wisely, and draw the palm tree that is right in front of me.
