I’m a tremendously excitable person. It’s just who I’ve always been despite the best efforts of various bullies in my childhood. So this past week, when I fell asleep during the final Q&A of the SpaceX Mars livecast, I expected to wake up to headlines talking about Musk’s vision of having people on Mars in the 2030’s. He has a plan, he has the funding, he’s close to having the technology. This is not a mad scheme. My dismay at finding zero news was great. So I started to enthuse about it to everyone who would listen. Fairly quickly after that, I started to realize the problem; we have all collectively lost hope.
And who can blame us? America is in the middle of a long hangover, climate change is getting worse and here at home a neo-nazi killed a man for disagreeing with him, in a public place, in the middle of the day and our country’s leaders are collectively failing to address that in any meaningful way. I get it, things are looking fairly bleak all around.
The thing is, these things go in cycles. And we, as a species keep getting better. Yes, we have done some horrifying things to each other and continue to do some horrifying things to others and ourselves but still, the number of wars fought by humanity at large is on a downward trend, and we as a species are remarkably inventive. We are capable of coming up with solutions to hard problems when we manage to find the political will to do the thing, whatever that thing is.
In the end, things are going to be alright. I basically have to believe in that. The hope will find its way back to us and we’ll do the things that will further empathy in the world and somehow find a way to divert the disastrous march of climate change. And someday, maybe, the hopey-changey stuff will maybe be a good thing again. Meanwhile, it’s a good idea for all to put their shoulders to the wheel to make a better future. For hope.
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