A COMMENT I have heard from so many people I met over the last few months.
Well, maybe my opinion might leave you speechless at first. The world is not bad. A small fraction of people in this world are bad — or, to use a more accurate term, evil. So what?
The vast majority of people in this world are good, decent, reliable, honest, friendly, and hard-working. I know this because, over the last 65 years, I have been to 120 countries and personally met hundreds of people all over the world. Only a tiny fraction of them were truly evil.
But as the saying goes, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” You are more aware of the bad ones because they are more visible. Good people are the so-called silent majority.
The kind of pessimism and cynicism some people espouse amounts to a self-fulfilling prophecy. You see the bad you expect to see, and you ignore all the good things as if they were invisible. Yes, the bad is out there — but there is far more good than bad. Don’t do that to yourself unless you truly enjoy self-inflicted misery.
The point of life is living it. There is no other point. Life is its own justification and needs nothing further to justify itself.
Let’s be honest: the world can be a pretty terrible place. From personal losses to national tragedies and global disasters — and everything in between — it’s easy to feel depressed about the state of the world.
Just thinking about the sheer amount of awfulness around us can be completely overwhelming, even paralyzing. The problems are far too big for any single person to solve. So what can you do? Should you do anything? Should you give up? Is there even a “should” to begin with?
It’s normal to feel discouraged about the world.
You may have heard this expression: “If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.” It’s not just anger — the same goes for depression. Research has shown that people who feel depressed often make more accurate predictions about events than those who don’t. Many bad things happen in the world, and feeling bad about them is a normal reaction.
It’s okay to feel:
* grief about what’s been lost;
* anxious about what’s going to happen next;
* overwhelmed by how big the problems are, or how much work it will take to solve them;
* disillusioned by people in positions of power;
* guilty for not doing more; and
* paralyzed by all these feelings.
These feelings are all normal. Of course, they’re not fun — and they’re not always particularly useful. Depression may help you see clearly how terrible things are, but it is also the leading cause of disability worldwide.
Equally unhelpful is being told to “just stay positive.” Ignoring the horrible things around you won’t make them go away, any more than getting depressed about them will. If you want to function in the world and help make it a better place, you need to take care of yourself — and then find ways to help however you can.
I have been able to count on my Filipino family for more than 28 years now. They are my main medicine amid all this global chaos.
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Email: doringklaus@gmail.com or follow me on Facebook, Linkedin or X (Twitter) or visit www.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/PN
