Quite brilliant as always and reflects my view toward our human nature in a manner that is beyond my capabilities. As a pubic person, I have come to focus on my soul- engaging in my work in a manner that feeds my soul - not the insecure need for headlines that rarely reflect the truth. I know who in am and those who know me are also aware. I am over the moon at the progress we have made and get up every day after solving a big problem to the not so positive side of our nature, where headline grabbers find something new to belly ache about. The color of lipstick or a computer that takes 2 seconds to load.
You are right about certain aspects of our nature, but each of us can transcend and, as Albert Einstein said in Living Philosophies, “ each of us arrive on this planet earth for a short moment, not knowing why, yet somehow seeming to Devine a purpose”.
Thank you Bob. And yes, so true that we each of us have a choice about how we relate to the world around us and what we chose to attend to and emphasize.
Discovering your work at The Progress Network and other excellent "good news" media organizations (namely Future Crunch / Fix The News) really changed my outlook on the world as a twenty something American.
When I first got exposed to good news compilations (after feeling burned out from the overwhelming negativity of mainstream media / doom inc.), I felt relief. I thought to myself "how wonderful, look at all this good stuff."
Then, after about a month of regularly reading good news newsletters, I thought "This is crazy. They can't keep up this pace. These people are going to run out of good news. There cannot possibly this be much."
Then, a couple months after that, it hit me that the good news was not going to stop, and I just felt angry. I actually could not believe that this much incredible stuff was happening all the time, and all anyone wanted to focus on was a Tesla autopilot crash, or something else way less important than say, the invention of a malaria vaccine, radical progress being made against extreme poverty, the cratering price of solar energy, the astounding victories for human rights happening in many places, etc...
Eventually I got so mad about it that I started collecting stories of progress and interviewing optimists in my home state of New Hampshire, where I live and am thoroughly planted. Now I just get mad when people talk about NH like it's some awful backwater place. At least now with Granite Goodness I have something original and fact oriented with which to respond to those inordinately bearish on NH (which is a surprising amount of Granite Staters actually, nevermind the fact that there was a mass exodus of Massachusites here during covid. I welcome them all!).
Of course most days the work is absolutely joyous, even if a little maddening at times when people don't appreciate how good we have it.
Anyhow thank you for this post, I think it accurately captures how your work makes myself and many others feel. For what it's worth, your approach of being a source of calm electing to stand on a digital street corner while (politely and gently) asking people to calm the fuck down has actually really changed my life for the better.
Thanks btw for recommending my page, that means that world to me!
Wow! This is the first piece of writing that really gives me direction. I love your posts and this one goes in my journal for those days I forget to celebrate all the good. Thank you!
While all you say makes sense, the question becomes point of view. If I am hungry does it really matter if we identify the issue as a distribution problem and not a food problem. If I am unable to get a job because of race or gender discrimination I still do not have a job. If I live in Ukraine, Gaza or was attacked by Hamas terrorists - do I feel progress has been made? If I am a slave laborer mining minerals used in chips do I feel progress has been made? Many of us humans are better off than we would be in the dark ages, but it still does not mean for way too many it is really, really dark. So, I am Mad As Hell that we still have a hoarding problem, that we still have not solved the distribution problem. That too many of us allow racism. We still allow poverty. We still allow abuse of our nature. That we still allow guns in our world. That we still allow nations to kill children and innocents....
Thank you for this, Zachary. As many here have said, it's a breath of fresh air to reconsider all the progress and success in contrast to the constant stream of dark news and cynicism.
I started reading you based on Steve Pinker's recommendation; the last two pages of his "Enlightenment Now" are something my husband and I read every Sunday with our teenaged kids, as part of a humanist family gathering -- because if we as parents aren't going to share this kind of optimistic message with our kids, it may very well not reach their ears these days.
"We will never have a perfect world, and it would be dangerous to seek one. But there is no limit to the betterments we can attain if we continue to apply knowledge to enhance human flourishing." (pg 453; I encourage you all to read all of pages 452-453, if not the whole book!)
We're grateful to you, to Steve, and voices like yours. Keep talking!
Beware - it is very hard turning being mad as hell into something constructive. It's not likely to help us to get those who deny humankind's enormous progress to reconsider. If there IS a way that being mad as hell can be helpful, it will need to be specified and argued for very precisely, so as to distinguish it from all the unhelpful ways of being and acting mad as hell.
They say that until the capitalist system collapses nothing will happen. If you are mad as hell at the way the world thinks or feels about itself, then how will you feel after a total break with the past, as the entire modern system fall and 90% of us are wiped out along with many non-human species of worth
To focus on the positive rather than the negative, the practice of gratitude, is a worthwhile orientation. I'm on board!
Men Against Domestication! Stay wild my friend.
thanks I needed that ,,,
excellent
Quite brilliant as always and reflects my view toward our human nature in a manner that is beyond my capabilities. As a pubic person, I have come to focus on my soul- engaging in my work in a manner that feeds my soul - not the insecure need for headlines that rarely reflect the truth. I know who in am and those who know me are also aware. I am over the moon at the progress we have made and get up every day after solving a big problem to the not so positive side of our nature, where headline grabbers find something new to belly ache about. The color of lipstick or a computer that takes 2 seconds to load.
You are right about certain aspects of our nature, but each of us can transcend and, as Albert Einstein said in Living Philosophies, “ each of us arrive on this planet earth for a short moment, not knowing why, yet somehow seeming to Devine a purpose”.
Thank you Bob. And yes, so true that we each of us have a choice about how we relate to the world around us and what we chose to attend to and emphasize.
Love this.
Discovering your work at The Progress Network and other excellent "good news" media organizations (namely Future Crunch / Fix The News) really changed my outlook on the world as a twenty something American.
When I first got exposed to good news compilations (after feeling burned out from the overwhelming negativity of mainstream media / doom inc.), I felt relief. I thought to myself "how wonderful, look at all this good stuff."
Then, after about a month of regularly reading good news newsletters, I thought "This is crazy. They can't keep up this pace. These people are going to run out of good news. There cannot possibly this be much."
Then, a couple months after that, it hit me that the good news was not going to stop, and I just felt angry. I actually could not believe that this much incredible stuff was happening all the time, and all anyone wanted to focus on was a Tesla autopilot crash, or something else way less important than say, the invention of a malaria vaccine, radical progress being made against extreme poverty, the cratering price of solar energy, the astounding victories for human rights happening in many places, etc...
Eventually I got so mad about it that I started collecting stories of progress and interviewing optimists in my home state of New Hampshire, where I live and am thoroughly planted. Now I just get mad when people talk about NH like it's some awful backwater place. At least now with Granite Goodness I have something original and fact oriented with which to respond to those inordinately bearish on NH (which is a surprising amount of Granite Staters actually, nevermind the fact that there was a mass exodus of Massachusites here during covid. I welcome them all!).
Of course most days the work is absolutely joyous, even if a little maddening at times when people don't appreciate how good we have it.
Anyhow thank you for this post, I think it accurately captures how your work makes myself and many others feel. For what it's worth, your approach of being a source of calm electing to stand on a digital street corner while (politely and gently) asking people to calm the fuck down has actually really changed my life for the better.
Thanks btw for recommending my page, that means that world to me!
-Andy
A very touching and gracious note. Thank you Andy
Thank you!!! If you're ever in NH know you'd be a welcome and honored guest at our farm : )
I share the progress network newsletter with my family every week and now they're all catching the optimism bug-- it's infectious!
Keep up the great work
To focus on the positive rather than the negative, the practice of gratitude, is a worthwhile orientation. I'm on board!
Thank you David
Wow! This is the first piece of writing that really gives me direction. I love your posts and this one goes in my journal for those days I forget to celebrate all the good. Thank you!
Thank you Shannon
Yes, the evidence for long-term material progress is so overwhelming, so it can be frustrating when it seems like everyone ignores it:
https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/evidence-of-progress
Keep the faith, though, that if learn from our history:
1) an awareness of the progress that previous generations have passed down to us
2) a feeling of gratitude for benefitting from their efforts
3) a willingness to learn how they achieved that progress, and
4) the confidence to believe that our current problems are not insurmountable, we are in a much better position to solve the problems of today.
Okay. This was the one that turned me into a paid subscriber. Thanks. I really needed this.
Thanks Rebecca
While all you say makes sense, the question becomes point of view. If I am hungry does it really matter if we identify the issue as a distribution problem and not a food problem. If I am unable to get a job because of race or gender discrimination I still do not have a job. If I live in Ukraine, Gaza or was attacked by Hamas terrorists - do I feel progress has been made? If I am a slave laborer mining minerals used in chips do I feel progress has been made? Many of us humans are better off than we would be in the dark ages, but it still does not mean for way too many it is really, really dark. So, I am Mad As Hell that we still have a hoarding problem, that we still have not solved the distribution problem. That too many of us allow racism. We still allow poverty. We still allow abuse of our nature. That we still allow guns in our world. That we still allow nations to kill children and innocents....
Fair enough, and yes, there is very much an open question of whether the reasons for continued issues matter as much as the fact that they do.
Appreciate the reply
Well written, thank you!
Thank you for this, Zachary. As many here have said, it's a breath of fresh air to reconsider all the progress and success in contrast to the constant stream of dark news and cynicism.
I started reading you based on Steve Pinker's recommendation; the last two pages of his "Enlightenment Now" are something my husband and I read every Sunday with our teenaged kids, as part of a humanist family gathering -- because if we as parents aren't going to share this kind of optimistic message with our kids, it may very well not reach their ears these days.
"We will never have a perfect world, and it would be dangerous to seek one. But there is no limit to the betterments we can attain if we continue to apply knowledge to enhance human flourishing." (pg 453; I encourage you all to read all of pages 452-453, if not the whole book!)
We're grateful to you, to Steve, and voices like yours. Keep talking!
Beware - it is very hard turning being mad as hell into something constructive. It's not likely to help us to get those who deny humankind's enormous progress to reconsider. If there IS a way that being mad as hell can be helpful, it will need to be specified and argued for very precisely, so as to distinguish it from all the unhelpful ways of being and acting mad as hell.
Right on!! Right on!
They say that until the capitalist system collapses nothing will happen. If you are mad as hell at the way the world thinks or feels about itself, then how will you feel after a total break with the past, as the entire modern system fall and 90% of us are wiped out along with many non-human species of worth