Watching the political climate is always a little depressing, given that it's so negative. It makes me long for a time I didn't live in, like the 60's, where there were strong leaders like JFK and Dr. King, musicians who got involved in a way that wasn't a joke, and a bigger sense of purpose. We put people on the moon! Of course, this is very much a romanticized perception on my part, as my parents' generation will tell you it wasn't all rainbows and free love.
Regardless of this, the thing that I see in the speeches and the historical record is generally an ambitious call to action. Leaders of all kinds seemed intent on challenging people. Again, it might be a romanticized take on history, but it's still a stark contrast to today. I feel like we're subjected to entirely too much of a meaningless group hug message. Being proud of whatever we're supposed to be and cheerleading aren't enough to make us great.
Aside from the leadership issues, we seem to have a growing culture of disregard for excellence that has been replaced by pride and cheerleading. For example, there's this growing and bizarre sentiment of disregard for science. Climate change is political, people blame things on vaccines and there's always a demonic substance we're not supposed to eat because the Internet said so. People are unwilling to stop and say, "I don't really have a lot of information about this, so I'm going to learn as much as I can and maybe even find a way to contribute." How sad is that in a time when we can learn and understand, if we choose to, faster than ever before?
There are, fortunately, people who push to make things better. Elon Musk has taken it upon himself to make space a commercial venture, and build electric cars for fun and profit. Bill Gates is trying to make philanthropy more efficient. Brad and Angelina are adopting all of the poor children they can. Just kidding about the last one, but I suppose that leads me to the point that we don't all have to attempt to change the world in a massive way. I think we can all bring about a more excellent world in smaller ways. It starts by not putting so much energy into anti-excellent stuff.
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