Addressing societal ills without cynicism

Can we reject evil consistently and avoid comparisons?

If we want to overcome evil, we should start with ourselves.

We might not have the same impact as a celebrity or a CEO, but our words and actions still have ripple effects. This includes posts that are widely shared on social media.

If there were one word to describe many of the posts I see, it would be cynical. When we look at others, especially those with wealth, fame, and/or power, our attention focuses on their failures and moral shortcomings, not their strengths. This cynicism is mainly directed at celebrities on the “other side,” while celebrities on “our side” frequently get a pass.

Indeed, wealth, power, and fame affect people’s moral compasses, but we who have none of those things still have pride, which has a similar effect. But cynicism should not be our default mode of operation. How would we behave if we were celebrities? Would we do better than them? I’m not convinced we would (I can certainly say for myself that I wouldn’t).

But what about all that is wrong and unjust in the world? What do we do about it? I must admit I don’t have answers, but I am confident that we can do better than point fingers on social media and complain about how things are so wrong and unjust. What else can we do instead? How can we make small differences in the lives of people around us?

What do you think?