Here’s hoping

It’s supposed to be the season of peace and goodwill, but somehow it all rings false this year. I don’t need to repeat the litany of miseries we experienced in 2016. But this time we can’t just flip a calendar page and call it a fresh start. We’re going to be reaping the results for a long time to come.

This year has taught us a lot of things we don’t like to believe about ourselves. We humans are selfish, greedy, violent, irrational and easily manipulated. When cracks appear in our society, we look for scapegoats. We’ll believe anyone who tells us stories that make us feel good about ourselves, especially at the expense of other people. We’ll do anything for a sense of security, and don’t mind trampling on truth and democracy along the way.

So is there any hope? Well, of course there’s another side to us humans too. We can be caring, creative, innovative, rational, principled and altruistic. We can pull together in a crisis. Will we be able to do it this time? Grassroots movements take a long time to build. But in the past it has been grassroots movements that have gradually swayed public opinion and forced governments to shift in response. That’s how we’ve been able to make progress in minority rights, women’s rights and gay rights. Individuals and communities need to come together now. We need leaders who bring morality and social justice back into the conversation. Progressives can’t expect to persuade with rational argument any more. They need to find ways to project a vision that people can feel deeply, that makes us want to be better than we are, to reach out beyond ourselves. It has to be more appealing than rage and hate. And it has to give us hope.