That I would be Good...

If “leaders” of anything still paid any attention to me, they’d laugh at my idea that we should just focus on being nice to each other rather than on building ever more polarized and discombobulated ideological frameworks from which to hate each other. I’d be cast as silly and childish. But if you think about each individual tragedy — just today I read about a poor elderly woman left to freeze to death over a few hundred dollars in late rent — and pictured the majority of involved individuals actually being nice and kind (“I’m supposed to physically throw this old lady out to freeze like garbage in order to get paid enough to feed my children?? But that’s mean so I’m telling my boss”...then the boss cares and thinks it’s mean...then eventually extremely powerful people can’t stomach what they are doing and people slowly start triaging the world as best as they can) it leads to some hope.

Realistically, I don’t believe this strategy will come close to significantly reducing all of the suffering among all of the people and animals in the world. But the world sucks right now anyway, so that’s no loss. Meanwhile, by being nice, people will begin to experience life as filled with activities that embody goodness, kindness, peace, generosity, and positive connections rather than filled with the activities of war, hatred, and battles. I’m convinced that this is better than what anybody else who talks about politics is doing. If some of them get their way, we will all be heading towards revolutions and violence. At least half of them seem to be fixated on attacking their own allies more than anything else (Bill Nye is an enemy du jour for other scientists, for example, tomorrow it will be someone else). I understand that the current extreme polarization of wealth — I’m certainly not on the power monger side of that myself! — contributes to tragedies like Chasse‘s. I’m not averse to pointing that out.

I am opposed to spending so much time — in both extreme political discourse communities — refining our lists of enemies. Are they terrorists, “lazy” immigrants, rapists, sexists, people being accidentally sexist by trying to engage in human conversations, people ”sponging“ off the government for benefits, evangelical Christians, Muslims, diversity hires, racists, new varieties of racists we just invented, privileged people, the middle class, the elites, the drug dealers, the pharmaceutical companies, the gangs, “entitled” minorities, the unemployed who “refuse” to work, whites, blacks, Asians, lunatics, lunatics with guns, people who own guns???? YES, all of us could be nicer...and also no. It’s all of “those people” and it’s none of them as explicitly and directly as other people think. ALL the problems come from people being mean within all the different groups. Individuals being cruel to each other. Individuals feeling so frightened and desperate that they can’t even see nice options and end up being mean. People getting together in groups and being mean. Let’s just be nice instead. I’m going to try. I’ll love it if others try too.

I didn’t watch this film expecting to be so moved. I didn’t post it expecting to write so much. But I like this new world view I’ve articulated. It works. I might finally have found a way to explain myself and the world, to myself, that can guide me forward. I’m going to try to be nice and value that quality in others wherever I find it. No doubt, I’ll get frustrated and mad and say mean things occasionally for quite awhile. I was terribly distraught and unhealthy. But I won’t get furious with myself. I’ll just try to be a bit nicer, kinder, happier, healthier, and more positive as time goes on. No doubt other people will seem fake, rude, or problematic. I’m sure I’ll feel compelled to criticize myself and others, sometimes legitimately and with useful purpose, other times in total error. Oh well. Nothing’s perfect and nothing need be.

For now, I have plans: focus on getting healthier, make my classes pleasant learning experiences for the students in them this semester, design my endlessly ironic course on “The Pursuit of Happiness: Historical Literature and Modern Practice”, and ease back into other projects as the semester moves forward. The course requires some haste to avoid losing a few $K in remaining grants but even if worst comes to worst, the life lessons have been worth the financial loss. I knew the original syllabus and ideas were way too simple. Now I know what to do and it won’t be fake, hypocritical, or phony. I’ll believe in what I say sufficiently to withstand any bureaucratic criticism, challenges, or setbacks and keep saying it. To anyone still reading: thank you for listening! I needed an audience to be able to try to articulate and develop my ideas to figure out what I was doing. I truly hope some things I’ve said helped some other people figure out what they’re doing with their lives, too. Until next time, let’s go do it...nicely.