I make the case that we cannot give up on humanity as it plays into the game of oligarchs, plutocrats, and corporate executives.
Don’t give up on humanity
I got an email from a supporter that almost broke my heart. I immediately came to my senses. I had the following two paragraphs in my Politics Done Right Newsletter that I believe elicited the email.
The year ahead is enormous. If we live up to our humanity, it will work out well. …Each of us has the power to incentivize goodness and humaneness with our acts. We need not live up to the expectations of those who need us at each other’s throats. Let’s use this holiday season to reevaluate ourselves and give others a place to land to do good. That act will let the country live up to its claimed values.
He said, “I have all but given up on humanity.” Given what we are living through, it is not hard to understand why many people feel that way. But he was not just checking out. That email was likely a message to someone he felt comfortable with, giving him reason to stay checked in and engaged. I see that as my purpose and the purpose of many of us who have a platform to help navigate a system that can fluctuate between being too sterile for humanity, inhumanely cruel, and sometimes surprisingly supportive. My response, of course, was not to give up.
Fareed Zakaria had two historians on his show this Sunday that gave me hope while may scare many. In the 1860s, we had the civil war. In the 1960s, JFK, MLK, Malcolm X, & Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. Riots and polarization were high. Understand, none of this was ever started by the masses in the aggregate. And many plutocrats have always profited from the turmoil.
We still have avenues to communicate with each other. It is incumbent on us not to give up on our brothers and sisters, humanity. Those who profit from the chaos need to factionalize us. It is incumbent on those who see the big picture to continue the engagement; otherwise, those dependent on our confused state will profit.