A friend told me a couple of weeks ago that she was so discouraged by the state of the world some days that she didn’t even feel like getting out of bed in the morning. It’s understandable. Look at the intractable conflicts around the world – in the Mideast, in Ukraine – or at the destruction and suffering linked to climate change, or, especially, at the bitter political campaign that has Americans divided against each other, and fearful and discouraged. And we have to ask: How has it come to this? And what might give us hope?
This isn’t the way things have been in America. Alexis de Tocqueville, the Frenchman whose trenchant observations of our society in the early 19th century helped set our sense of national character, praised the notion that Americans, as he put it, “have all a lively faith in the perfectibility of man.” Tocqueville wrote about Americans, “They all consider society as a body in a state of improvement.”
Well, if we were optimists, today we’re not so much. Now a sort of virus of pessimism infects our national psyche, a “cannot-do” mentality. So what becomes essential — at least, if we are to avoid losing hope — is to find an energizing principle that will help us launch each day.
One place to start is in considering one of the early evolutionary advantages of homo sapiens – namely, the tendency to band together. Our ancestors’ sociability helped protect them from predators. It’s no wonder, then, that human psychology, many millennia later, is marked by our eagerness to be with other people, and to fit into the group. It’s a key explanation of why we go along with others in our cohort.
Some years back psychologists conducted an experiment in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, where there were signs warning visitors not to swipe petrified rocks. The signs said, “Your heritage is being vandalized every day by theft losses of petrified wood of 14 tons a year, mostly a small piece at a time.” So the psychologists had the signs removed on one particular path – and they found that thefts decreased by one-third compared to a path that displayed the sign. That is, visitors stole from the park because they knew that others were doing it, too – even if they considered it the wrong thing to do.
And we see that in a lot of human behavior – as though our decision-making takes a shortcut by following others’ paths. And our beliefs and opinions operate similarly: We yield our independent judgment to what we know others think. That’s why social media influencers have become so — well, influential. And it explains some political decisions, too.
Of course, that’s not new. Through the ages, politics has often come down to a struggle between the drive for popularity and the ideal of doing what’s right. The do-the-right-thing crowd has always been the minority position; note that the book that won John F. Kennedy a Pulitzer prize, Profiles in Courage, spotlights only eight individuals. Kennedy cited three pressures that make it hard for a politician to develop the habit of courage: the pressures to be re-elected, to respond to interest groups and constituents, and to be liked.
Even people of good will find it difficult to stand up to those pressures, and I think we see that in the decision by otherwise respectable people who are standing behind Donald Trump – an ethical mess of a man, a constant liar and a criminal, but a politician whose chance for regaining power is one reason so many Americans feel a sense of hopelessness just now.
There are some Republican officeholders – and a lot of ordinary folks who are surrounded by Trump backers, too – who are bucking the pressure, refusing to go along with their crowd. And I’d say that those people have found a formula for all of us who feel that we are confronting the challenges and disappointments of the day – that is, the psychic value of personal integrity.
Experts tell us that living in congruence with your values leads to a more rewarding life – and that it’s actually better for your health than, say, the fleeting pleasures of social acceptance or of political power. Liz Cheney surely isn’t diminished daily by the sense that she has sacrificed her principles, as a lot of self-aware politicians who are backing Donald Trump against their better judgment surely are. So knowing that we are standing up for what’s right can give us power to get out of bed in the morning rather than pulling the blankets over our heads in fear of what bad news may lurk in the daylight’s shadows.
You might even consider that to be our responsibility. Consider what John Kennedy wrote in Profiles in Courage: “In a democracy,” he wrote, “every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, ‘holds office;’ every one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities.”
Exactly so. Great athletes know that the adrenaline that pumps during intense moments of competition doesn’t take away the pain of injuries, but rather distracts them from a focus on pain — sometimes making them feel invincible. The same goes in all of life: Energy for the fight comes when we stand up for it. That’s why drawing on your personal integrity can strengthen your backbone. Disregarding the influencers, standing apart from the pack – call it what you will, but know that it can help propel us forward on even the toughest of days.
Rex Smith, the co-host of The Media Project on WAMC, is the former editor of the Times Union of Albany and The Record in Troy. His weekly digital report, The Upstate American, is published by Substack.
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