Happy new year to everyone!
I recently published a book titled, If Only We Knew: How Ignorance Creates and Amplifies the Greatest Risks Facing Society (for more information visit ifonlyweknewbook.com). In my book, I argue that the problems facing society (e.g., climate change, racism, and gun violence) are the result of deep-rooted flaws in our culture.
We have a me-first culture in the United States. One where individualism is exalted. Punitiveness, selfishness, and the love of money are directly and indirectly encouraged. This is more than unfortunate, it is dangerous.
In my book, I explain that these misguided cultural values are especially embodied by the ultra-wealthy elite class. The elite, I argue, act on these values to intentionally create and maintain social problems. I argue that the elite do this because they accrue wealth and power from the risks produced by these social problems. I believe that making this connection between the greed of the elite and the existence of social problems is the first step to understanding, mitigating, and ultimately eradicating the risks that plague society.
A Culture for Others
Over the past few months, I have been blogging about the benefits of applying philosophy to our daily lives. Philosophy can be applied on a broad societal scale as well. In my book, I explain that philosophy provides us with a guide to create a society in which the powerful don’t exploit and endanger others for their own gain.
To mitigate the risks that endanger society, we must replace our me-first culture with a culture for others. That means valuing community over individualism; forgiveness over punitiveness; selflessness over selfishness; and love of other over love of money. In other words, we must prioritize compassion above all.
Philosophy Take the Wheel
Every philosophy promotes a culture for others. In chapter 54 of the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu states,
See others as yourself. See families as your family. See towns as your town. See countries as your country. See worlds as your world.
We must abandon our selfish tendencies and come to see others’ happiness as equally important as our own. This is not just the right thing to do morally, it is the right thing to do practically!
In my book, I cite Adam Grant’s book Give and Take to offer research on the benefits of selflessness. Grant explains that the most successful people are “givers”, those who give and help others before helping themselves. However, we don’t need to look to statistics to know the benefits of selflessness. We can simply look to philosophy!
In chapter 7 of the Tao te Ching, Lao Tzu states
The sage puts himself last and becomes the first.
In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius says
Humans were made to help others. And when we do help others — or help them to do something — we’re doing what we were designed for. We perform our function.
Hope
If you follow the news, you may have the impression that all hope is lost. Everyone is so angry with each other. Progress seems so far off. Yet, today marks a new year. Let’s start this new year with hope. Hope that we can create a better society by leaning on the lessons of philosophy. Hope that we can ease tensions by prioritizing peace, love, and compassion in all our interactions. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said,
Let us be those creative dissenters who will call our beloved nation to a higher destiny, to a new plateau of compassion, to a more noble expression of humanness.
Who knows, with hope, we may be able to transform society.