12/31/2023
My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,
“The social fabric appears to be unravelling: civility seems like an old-fashioned habit, honesty like an optional exercise & trust like the relic of another time.”
Guess when that was written? According to today’s article in CSM “Pessimism or progress: What did you see in 2023?” it comes from Rome, 2000 years ago.
Tamar Gendler (TSG) explained our chronic pessimism on Hidden Brain by describing Plato’s metaphor of a pair horses & a charioteer used to illuminate why it’s hard to “know thyself”. One horse represents norms guiding us toward what’s socially acceptable, the other horse represents our wild side driven by lust & appetite. The charioteer is our rational side, wrangling with the wild horse to keep the cart going in positive direction. We spend our lives trying to tame the wild horse, by going to church, meditating, studying, etc, but never manage to do so. Since we can’t trust ourselves, it’s hard to trust others, thus the pessimism.
Clearly POTUS 45 contends with a very wild horse he never learned to reign in. I’m disappointed to see that you have adopted his apocalyptic language, but as Toluse Olorunnipa points out in the WP, your “efforts at more positive messaging have struggled to gain traction,” so I understand why you are fighting back. Please don’t let pessimism overwhelm your messages in 2024.
Focus instead on the brilliance, resilience & creativity of Gen Z. These digital natives think differently than us old fogies. An interesting example are the Gen Zers in the Mandalay People’s Defence Force who use bombs made with a 3D printer to challenge the dominance of the junta’s planes. These kids have technology & software that will change everything.
Please tap into their energy of & emphasize the progress we’ve made. The CSM points out that even though “we’ve gained ground, our expectations have moved ahead with us. As they keep rising, it’s easy to lose sight of how far we’ve come.”
Remember WINTA!
BYBS,
