The world is...?

This is one of the most important quotes if you want to understanding our world today.

All of those statements are true.
At the same time.

But when looking at the world, you rarely see more than the first line.
And that is a problem.

How many “negative lenses” have you collected about the world?

You gaze towards the horizon and into the future of Humanity.
What do you see?

Since the Media is constantly feeding you death, disease and destruction… it’s hard to see anything else. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t there.

Humans have a negativity bias where we tend to focus and notice all the bad stuff, and overlook all the good stuff.

With that in mind it’s important to consider how many negative lenses you have in your monocular?

If you have a sense of hopelessness regarding the state of the world, this is likely one reason for it. You only have lenses confirming to you that “the world is awful”.

Don’t throw away what you have, learn to see more.

I could show you positive statistics about decreased child mortality, people leaving extreme poverty, number of children going to school or the number of countries that have had a female head of state.

By doing this, I can add more perspectives… but this can also be a very misleading. Especially if you assume that by adding these new perspectives, I recommend you to throw away the old ones.

I really want to stress one important thing here.

I am not saying that any of the “negative” lenses are wrong.
I am not blind to all the horrors and suffering in this world.

And I am not suggesting that your monocular is wrong…
What I am saying, is that it is incomplete.

There are always more perspectives to consider and I want you to be able to see them all. Together. At the same time.

To see the world as awful, better, and could be better, at the same time.

So how do you do that?

I cannot give you the Answer to how you manage more perspective about the world. What I can give you though, is the framework I am currently using.

Be careful with definitions and labels.

In school, teachers often introduce a new topic with the definitions. They provide a common ground, some form of foundation for you to build your understanding on.

In some cases they are solid and rarely change. If you learn an old definition in math or physics, they have likely been the same for centuries.

If you on the other hand have a definition in your mind along the lines of “this country is a “developing country””, then that is a more dangerous definition.

A definition doesn’t contain any room for changes or transformation.
So when something is defined, it is put in a box and then you think it will stay there.

But countries change.
People change.
YOU change.

So why keeping definitions for things that are very hard to define?
The same is true for labels.

Giving something a label is very limiting and can be very damaging, especially if you only put one label on it.

This is bad, this is good, you are like that, that country is like that, the world is…

I can continue the list but I know you get the point.

By removing definitions and adding more than one label, you start to see that many things… are more than one thing.

The world will change regardless of what definition you have of it.

And that is what this is all about.

The world is…

I know that you want a simple solution. A clear structure. A finished framework.
A world where this is good, this is bad, and where there is no spectrum of complexity in between.

But the world doesn’t look like that. There rarely is one simple answer, one solution, one perspective that will show you everything.

By adding more perspectives you will get a more nuanced image of the world. And with those new perspectives you will ease some of the hopelessness you are feeling, and get more energy to help make it better.

Because the world can be much better.
The world is changing.

And you are a part of that change.

Do you see it?

Want to learn and talk more about the world,
don’t hesitate to send me a DM on LinkedIn

Until next time!
Daniel - The Talking Bridge

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