I have lately been bothered by the unending amount of bad news from world science, political and economic sources that are pessimistic in the extreme. Mixed in are also some "good news" items as well, but you have to dig to find them. Sample scenario: You have a friend that is terminally ill with a disorder that is known to get worse with mental anguish. Your friend doesn't know that the illness will kill her. If you don't tell her that she will die soon she will not have any chance to do the many things that dying people want to and should do, but if you do tell her you will cause her to die much sooner. Do you let her go on into a future that holds only death with no closure, or do you tell her, precipitate her death, but she spends her last time knowing what is coming and getting ready?
I agonize over the bad news because of the tendency of people like me to ring the danger bell of the world coming apart. But do we do anyone a favor by doing this?
I was at a wedding this past weekend and the families were joyful (as they should be) and looking forward to yet another batch of grandchildren. I wanted to scream out " more grandchildren will increase the population pressure, worsen the world and doom the kids to much misery in their lifetimes", but I didn't. But they will.
For a person like me, not knowing what is the right path is unnerving. Maybe the best thing to do is nothing at all. Let the dice roll and the numbers fall. I think that silence will kill me but then again something will sooner or later anyway.
Photo from: www.tetherdcow.com/?cat=38
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