For my fellows whose primary need now is to
economize on energy and time:
1. Skip all stories about disarmament. Even if all nations disarmed they would
still have the know-how to produce weapons and as soon as their security or
welfare or self-regard — the usual "vital interests" — were
threatened, boom, there you'd be, facing again what really matters for peace, adjustment of vital interests. Talking disarmament is a way of displaying idealism and drawing
attention away from any moves you are making to your own advantage.
2. Stop reading any moral horror story as soon as you get
to the third horror. You're on
your way to horror-redundance, what reporters and editors get into when they
realize they've got a sustainable indignation going. You have time to say just once, "I believe it, and it's
outrageous." Young people have the energy to go on saying, "Oh what
an outrage, this too, this too, oh how terrible, oh how painful to an advanced
sensibility," but you have to have some energy left to respond to the next horror.
3. Give a low priority to stories about Trump and Russia. For this story to rise to the level of serious interest there has to be criminal behavior (as distinct from reprehensible behavior) and it's impossible to imagine behavior by Trump and Putin that meets the conditions necessary for criminality. Trump says, "Do X for me and I'll do Y for you after the election." (The necessary quid pro quo.) Putin's going to trust that? Trump's going to trust Putin? Not in the real world.
4. Suspend your reaction to all summary terms, like "racist," "sexist," "anti-semite," "bigot," "bleeding heart," "son of a bitch," and "asshole." Wait to see their basis in reported behavior.
5. In the final pinch skip all stories about internal troubles. In a democracy like ours these will always be with us but they can't sink us (we are like a raft, remember, with our feet always wet). What can sink us is a foolish war. So when you're down to the largest reading-glass magnification select only stories about foreign relations. If we succeed there no other failure matters (for long) and if we fail there no other success matters.
3. Give a low priority to stories about Trump and Russia. For this story to rise to the level of serious interest there has to be criminal behavior (as distinct from reprehensible behavior) and it's impossible to imagine behavior by Trump and Putin that meets the conditions necessary for criminality. Trump says, "Do X for me and I'll do Y for you after the election." (The necessary quid pro quo.) Putin's going to trust that? Trump's going to trust Putin? Not in the real world.
4. Suspend your reaction to all summary terms, like "racist," "sexist," "anti-semite," "bigot," "bleeding heart," "son of a bitch," and "asshole." Wait to see their basis in reported behavior.
5. In the final pinch skip all stories about internal troubles. In a democracy like ours these will always be with us but they can't sink us (we are like a raft, remember, with our feet always wet). What can sink us is a foolish war. So when you're down to the largest reading-glass magnification select only stories about foreign relations. If we succeed there no other failure matters (for long) and if we fail there no other success matters.
This is good advice. On climate change, I think we must all put an oar in the water to paddle the raft.
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