<
https://theconversation.com/looking-on-the-bright-side-the-risks-and-rewards-of-political-optimism-238885>
"There are plenty of reasons right now for finding the present state of the
world – and to some extent Australia – anything but bright. Internationally,
they include:
* global warming
* deadly conflict and atrocity crimes in Ukraine, the Middle East, Myanmar and
too much of Africa
* the continuing worldwide misery of more than 120 million refugees and
displaced persons
* the continuing grinding poverty, huge gains in China and India
notwithstanding, of the world’s bottom billion
* the still-endemic scale of modern slavery
* the irrational intensity and sheer riskiness of the strategic competition
between the US and China
* the prevalence of authoritarian populist nationalism, including in Western
democracies we had thought long grown out of it, and the associated retreat
from commitment to free and open global trade.
Domestically, among the reasons for gloom are
* the growing sense of intergenerational inequity, that the next cohorts can no
longer expect to do better than their parents
* the defeat of the Voice and our continuing failure to close the gap for
Indigenous Australians
* the continued reality of bamboo ceilings for racial minorities aspiring to
leadership positions in both the public and private sectors
* the unhappy reality that there still seems to be, in this most multicultural
society, a political market for racist dog-whistling
* the dearth of willingness by political leaders even of genuine decency to
tackle national interest issues that might involve even the most transient
unpopularity.
But my argument is that while some things are as bad as they seem, not all of
them are, and believing them to be so tends to make things worse. There are
plenty of risks in being what I rather bravely described myself as being in the
title of my 2017 political memoir,
An Incorrigible Optimist. But there are
also some real rewards."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
