How did I end up there? An optimistic and powerful man who so far in his life has not allowed whining and nagging to affect my mind. Now I’ve had dark thoughts, doubts take over me, and I wonder if it’s just as well to lock me and my family inside the bubble and let it out there sail its own troubled sea. I’m in the September of life, so let me just float calmly to the finish without using more strength than necessary, I can think. Could we hope that it’s only me who has a lump in my throat when the Dagsrevyen lists hopeless cases in line. Maybe it’s just me who feels a paralyzing despair over cities that are drowning, bombs that hit children’s rooms with merciless precision, species of animals that are wiped off the face of the planet, wine producers who blankly shake a dead vine, political leaders who win with insane ideas, and that the great power and the former world role model, the USA, is characterized by cheating and staging. And a possible president who might have his Oval Office in a cell. Cheered on by tens of millions of voters. Have we gone off the hinges? Or is it just me? Most of the time I hope I’m right. Not this time. I hope I’m wrong in hoping that it’s only me who needs comfort. I fear we are facing a massive wave of hopelessness. I am afraid that the young people are about to give up collective responsibility, they flee into themselves, they give up the vegetarian project, they drop their second-hand clothing enthusiasm, they no longer feel flight shame, they move ever further to the right, and It seems that the Young Conservative leader is right that Gretha Thunberg’s generation is dead. I meet young people every day who convey hopelessness and a lack of contact with friends and parents, they even miss eye contact. Yes, anecdotal, but just as true. My God, have I become so old and pessimistic, I think when my own words hit me. What happened, is it just me, or are we seeing the contours of a societal change characterized by the need to run away from the community? Are we all becoming as seen in Italy; a society that has such boundless distrust of those in power that people gather in family cohorts and bet everything on pasta dinners and the small and close, then the government, the prime minister, the mayor and the others can get on with their business. Because they have given up. They are entering the safe, individualistic bubble. I am now hearing the Dax-18 debate where I have to meet someone who claims there is no reason to be so unscientific and pessimistic. Just look at the clever youth politicians who are fighting for something, just look at how much money Save the Children collected in the TV campaign, just look at the willingness of business to make an effort for the environment, just look at the fact that people are happy to help each other in times of crisis and just look at the experiences from the concentration camps where you helped each other and shared what little you had. We can keep it up. But I can’t bear that debate. I will assert my right to be scared and worried about a massive shift in bad news in all areas of life. I will assert my right to seek comfort. So, to pull myself and the poor reader out of the mud a bit; Is there still hope? Man as a species turns out to have the abilities and strength to move on, to do the right thing in difficult situations. Most people are good, as the historian Rutger Bregman writes in the book of the same name. We have heard moving stories about how you help each other when disaster strikes. Here is hope, then. After all, this is what I want to convey to my three children and my grandson. Four beautiful individuals who, in total, are about the same age as me. They must be given hope. They will be here for a while. But what on earth are we supposed to say? Is what we are now experiencing so massive and comprehensive that it cannot be classified as a single crisis, but an extreme collection of crises, at the same time. Ecological, political, psychological, which is so difficult and intertwined that we cannot find our way out. Like a huge ball of wires twisted together. The anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen presents a tiny glimmer of light – and a heavy warning: “The planet is probably in a much worse condition than it might seem. Nevertheless, there are good reasons to be skeptical of the most pessimistic prophecies about our near future. Some of us have actually been there before, more than a century ago.” He writes about how in the 70s we feared acid rain, holes in the ozone layer and dying forests. We solved those problems through technology and international cooperation. Thus the question becomes; Who can unravel today’s complex problems? We fly in business class, everything is comfortable, but the pilot has left us. Is there “someone”, a “system” to point to, a country, leaders, business, or you and me? The answer is of the difficult kind: It begins with each one of us. We must want to do the right thing. System is a construction of wills. And what I contribute is wanting to withdraw. Help! So; although this is hard fare from a reverse optimist, I must again turn my gaze to the glimmer of light revealed through Yama Wolasmal’s consoling pat on the shoulder to a man in bottomless sorrow. Systemic and individual pats on the back are perhaps a good place to start.
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Comfort in a hopeless time – Expression
