Who will remember you?
“I’m not bothered what people know of me in four generations.”
“That’s narcissistic!”
This is a paraphrased excerpt from a recent popular podcast. Eric Weinstein was calling Steven Bartlett a narcissist. Essentially for not caring if anyone remembered him in 120 years. Of course, they were talking at cross purposes. Wanting to make the most of this one given life does not mean you give up social responsibility.
Steven is a well respected podcaster and entrepreneur, especially among younger audiences. There have occasionally been negative stories about his business practices. However, in terms of his conversations, he comes across as an intelligent, thoughtful, and respectful commentator on western society and the wider world. The comment section of this episode was full-on negativity for the guest. Many listeners claimed they had to tune out early. Called Eric smug, rude, and accused him of speaking ‘complete word salad’.
Their two hour conversation covered a range of topics. What stuck with me was the personal legacy segment. Legacy is important. Not in the sense of plaques and statues. But in ensuring continuity of convictions, passing on strongly held beliefs and ensuring repeated positive aspects of culture. The whole notion of the furtherment of human endeavour across generations is vital.
Whilst focusing on your zone of control is essential in keeping your sanity, you need to be aware of how your actions affect the future. Supporting social movements, and taking small steps to look after the environment helps. As does keeping things in perspective.
Look, everywhere, disaster!
Every time you browse the latest news, or scroll through social media, you are met with a barrage of negativity. That the earth’s ecosystem is currently a bin fire. That its inhabitants are warmongering racists. And that Mother Nature hates us. It can be difficult to focus on the positives. Where is the silver lining to the yearly increasing combat deaths and ever enlarged defense budgets? How does one put a decent spin on the never ending stories of tragedy?
This is where nihilism creeps in. It is all too easy to do nothing when feeling powerless. It’s almost certain you missed that global poverty has fallen substantially over the last few years. You will not have heard that the vaccination rates across Africa and Asia are improving.
Bad news travels fast, and concern triggers attention. It takes effort to see that for every negative news story there are countless thousands of acts of decency and compassion. The need to change our collective narrative about the state of the world is more pressing than ever. Believing there are numerous unseen people working for the betterment of society is a healthier idea than believing that the drums of war will drown out everything else.
How can we care about a future if there won’t be one?
Through a combination of accident and design, our media environment encourages us into a state of apathetic despair. Its time to act. To organize. To help bring about a world of hope, support, and conscientious action. People need empowering to continue to speak out against injustice. Much attention is already on specific conflict regions, from Ukraine to the Middle-East.
The terrible conditions of the people of Gaza act as a litmus test for our collective humanity. After years of being silenced, more people are coming out to denounce the inhuman acts carried out and the systematic oppression of the Palestinian people. There are slants of light if not the end of the tunnel.
Yet it needs to be remembered that this aberration is an anomaly. At the time of writing the majority of the worlds population live in a state of peace. The situation for the average human across cultures is clearly much better than it was fifty years ago. That’s less than a lifetime.
Final Thought
Like Steven, I don’t need to be remembered in four generations of humanity. Yet I would hope that I can take enough actions over my lifetime to ensure a positive contribution. The world is not as bad as the devices would have us believe, but this doesn’t mean we can rest.
In my view legacy isn’t what we leave behind. It is what we enable to be carried far into the following decades. Furthermore, to give up on the future is to be complicit in its loss. We are humans and we have agency, we owe it to ourselves to never give up on the potential and the positive arc of the human story.
Excellent piece to celebrate what progress we have made despite constant negative news trying to convince us otherwise.