* Where there is racism in
the world, we should do all we can to eradicate it.
* But too many people look
for racism and claim its existence when it is not occurring.
* Where there is unfair
discrimination in the world, we should do all we can to challenge it.
* But too many people look
for unfair discrimination and claim its existence when it is not occurring.
* Where there is unjust
inequality in the world, we should strive to make things better.
* But too many people look
for unjust inequality and claim its existence when it is not occurring.
And herein lies the
trouble: most people want to make the world a better place – but to do this
with maximum effect you have to seek the truth, employ reason, and have a
balanced perspective on reality. If not-real real instances of racism, unfair
discrimination and unjust inequality are being mixed in with real instances,
then it's harder to do a good job of eradicating the genuinely bad elements in
society. A detective is going to find it harder to solve real murders if large
swathes of the population play dead.
Aristotle, very likely
influenced by Aesop's famous fable of the boy who cried wolf, popularised the
maxim that when habitual liars do actually speak the truth they are not
believed. This is why the offence-seeking social justice warriors, the snowflakes,
the raving lefties, the maladjusted environmentalists and all manner of
paranoid, affronted alarmists do themselves no favours when they continue to
perpetuate myths and hostilities - like the bogus racism they see as a tool to
advance their identity politics, the mythological unfair gender pay gap, the
toxic victim-mentality, the misandry, the fabricated complaints about
inequality and the absurd socialist agenda to further their cause (see here
and here
for more about the damage this does).
Because if, by chance,
they do stumble upon a genuine untruth or a real injustice that requires
action, they will probably find themselves falling victim to the 'cry wolf'
scenario where too few people take them seriously enough on these matters. That's
why it is essential at all times to earnestly seek the facts and truths, and
not be taken in by convenient nonsense! It will make people trust you less on
the things you may be right about - and people will always be doubtful around
you, never being sure if they can trust your judgements.
Here is the biggest set of
home truths the world will always need - it's a tough but necessary reality
check:
1) We as
individuals are to blame for most of our problems.
2) We can
fix all the problems for which we are to blame by making incremental
improvements.
3) There
are some bad situations for which we are not to blame.
3) We can
make all the bad situations for which we are not to blame better by making
incremental improvements.
4) We blame
others most of the time for things we are unwilling to fix ourselves by making
those incremental improvements.
5) We do
this because displacement, transference, denial and projection make an easier
path of least resistance than the effort of making those incremental
improvements.
6) We
should all have sympathy with one another, and help each other, because
incremental improvements are easier if we feel supported and valued.
7) Those incremental
improvements are roughly this: seeking the truth, embracing facts, improving
our attitude towards other people and things, being committed to fixing the
faults within our inner-machinery.
Some people
may find number 1 difficult to swallow, but I think that's because society has
been spoon fed a rather anodyne narrative about the merits of personal
responsibility, achievement, diversity of talent and individual strengths,
preferring instead a fabricated equality and a counterfactual persuasion that there
is always someone else to blame for why our lives aren't going as well and
aren't as successful as other people's.
The most
valuable truth any of us can learn about personal responsibility and having a
fulfilled life is that proper motivation to make positive incremental
improvements really will make life better, if we'll only try with determination
for our own betterment, and keep persevering. This will be an easier journey
for some people than others - of course that's always going to be true - but what
is the alternative except for each individual to do the best they can with the
talents, experience, background and raw material they've been afforded?
So here's the rule, and
it's replete in Biblical wisdom: Only we as individuals can ultimately make our
lives better (see James 4:17 and Galatians 6:7-9). Sure we can have help, and
positive circumstances that aid our journey - but ultimately we have to take
the lead in desiring better for ourselves, and if we do, we'll start to see
those problems around us becoming more manageable. Just as we can't write a
good novel without a good story, we can't create a good life without a good
inward effort to make positive changes and fix the faults within our
inner-machinery.
Here's another rule that's
as old as scripture; small changes will beget bigger changes - if you start
small, even small things might seem hard - but if you keep making small changes
for the better, you'll get to the stage where it isn't that difficult to make
big positive changes. That's because compound interest is one of the most
powerful forces in the world (that is, interest on interest where P
(1+(r/n))^nt). How that translates here is that if you try to be better you
will be able to become even better still in a way that resembles the formula
for compound interest (see also Matthew 13:12 - “Whoever has will be given more,
and they will have an abundance”).
Let’s have a bit of fun to
show how compound interest can increase the abundance of one’s abundance. Let's
take marriage as an example - marriage is hard, and it's really difficult to be
a great husband or wife. And while it’s not easy to monetarise qualities in a
marriage (it’s not as hard as you think either) let’s say that in order to be
spiritually mature enough for marriage you have to be £1000 worth of amazing.
Two beloveds can marry if they are both worth £1000 each. A marriage that
begins with a £2000 joint account balance of amazingness should then look to
become even more amazing together - in how they bless others and each other,
and in how their love grows and deepens - to add interest to the interest they
are accumulating.
Let’s give some
calculations. Suppose the beginning marriage balance is £2000, and the couple
can manage a weekly addition of amazingness of just £1 each (£2 total). In
other words, each beloved only has to become more amazing at a rate of 1/2000th
every week for the rest of their life, making small improvements to become
better beloveds. In 50 years, with a weekly addition of amazingness of just £1
each, with an annual interest rate of 10% (which is roughly equivalent to
improving yourselves by just 1/10th of your total amazingness each year), and
an annual compounding interval (the interval your savings will compound at),
your marital value after 50 years will be £360,881. If you can manage a 15%
annual interest (improving yourselves by just over 1/6th of your total
amazingness each year) then your marital value after 50 years will be a
staggering £2.9 million. If you add another 5% to the annual interest rate, and
can manage 20%, your value after 50 years will shoot up to an astounding £23.3
million.
While the figures are
partly a bit of fun to show how interest on interest can accumulate - there is
an important analogue in relation to becoming better people: the more improvements
we make - in our thinking, in our truthseeking, in our attitude towards others,
in our diligence - the better still we can become, giving ourselves and
those around a more enriching and fulfilling life. That truth will always be true, irrespective of what is going on around us - it is an ineluctable law of being flawed humans.
