For and Against Complacency

Those who hold the tools must use them

There is a place for complacency.  I acknowledge the plea from a battered center for a truce.  Let it be a truism, progress has occurred before and during our life time.  At least in the United States, among the majority, we can point to non-paper, well-filled, grocery bags in our shops.  Women can aspire to jobs that once were too high on the shelf.  The poor enjoy larger TV screens.  I’m not just being sarcastic.  Let’s wake up the woke to the actual progress in a world that hasn’t been asleep. 

And then, after a deep breath and a cup of fresh brewed coffee, let’s decide to get our hands dirty in a global environment where it is increasingly hard to tell how many steps backward are taken for how many steps forward. 

We aren’t alone.  The alien watchers clique is not so far wrong, although they may be looking in a different direction than I’m suggesting.  We aren’t alone.  Many do not enjoy our advantages. That too is a truism.

And there is gut wrenching (called starvation) hunger in war torn regions of the world, or police brutality on daylit streets in prosperous (if unequal) societies.  There is no mechanism in place that guarantees a healthy, secure, future for them or even ourselves.  Climate change is like riding on a train that is clearly heading for the cliff edge.

We in the first class cars, if we live long enough, will share the fate of all. 

Let’s get to work.  Let’s prepare our minds for broader understandings, let’s enlarge our spirits for harder struggles.  Time left for complacency is taken at the cost of still further lost opportunities.