Disclaimer: Not talking about people who already worry about these sorts of things, or who simply can't afford to worry. These are all cool in my book. And I'm aware I'm not great in this either, but I'm trying to improve.
You know what I really dislike?
This fricking human tendency to lie to oneself and blind oneself from large-scale problems in the name of "optimism", because, I can only guess, accepting them as a part of reality would make one feel uncomfortable.
Global warming is a thing, yeah? We can all agree on that? So how about worrying a bit more, changing a bit about our lifestyles, being more politically active, actually DOING something, getting actual change done? No, no, let's not worry about that. That's in the fuuture. Or we can't affect anything anyway.
Oh, yeah, we care about people. If we saw someone starving on the street, we would perhaps even get them something to eat. So why don't many more people donate to charities that help people with these sorts of problems? Or any other issues? Why don't more people advocate for legislature pertaining to this? Oh no, but that's far away, let's not worry about that. Yeah, we'll say how terrible it is, we'll actually acknowledge it, if we WERE there, we would care and pity people who need help, but as long as its far, we won't feel too bad not helping as to not inconvenience ourselves, despite actual human LIVES being at stake, the entire worlds and existences of individuals like us. And when they put someone on the television? Yeah, THEN the donations start rolling in, because the issue now has a face we were forced to see, an individual on the same level as us. We are coded to relate to that. But the feeling of dread pertaining to an issue so large we can only do our part, and not much more? Make only a small dent, even if that meant saving people or something of such significance to individuals? Yeah, not worrying about that.
Alright, more controversial time:
Meat. I swear, if you gave people a little lamb or a chick or whatever, they would all cuddle it and love it. But stick it in a factory, where it will live a terrible life full of suffering? Yeah, we don't care. And we'll get angry for you for even trying to change our mind.
The worst bloody thing about this is that if you try to discuss it with some people and point out what they're doing wrong, they'll ditch all logic and reason and start defending themselves with arguments very clearly based on emotions and on what they personally WANT to believe. Now if you oppose me with other opinions and change my mind? I'm alright with that. That's what's important imo.
Not all optimism is bad, either. But the difference between healthy optimism and unhealthy optimism is whether it gives you strength to FACE problems, or if it just makes you ignore said problems because everything is just so bloody fine let's not look into shall we?
Also, I'm not saying you shouldn't be allowed to take a break from all of this, yeah, the only way to really face reality (at least for me these days) is to only worry about things when it's time to work on them, self-reflect, or plan future actions, not during other work or rest. But you eventually do have to factor these things in. ACKNOWLEDGE that they're a thing.
Sorry for the rant, and feel free to disagree.
