Should We Be Concerned About External Things We Cannot Change?

I read a number of newspapers (online) every day and have for years. You may well do it too. If you do, you'll have noticed that a majority, if not all of the articles, relate to situations we as individuals can't do anything about. Yes, we can vote every two years, donate money (if we have it) to candidates or parties, or actually become activists and devote a lot of our time to particular issues and/or particular elections.

But we here at PC have an awful lot of personal things on our plates. And it seems hard for many (certainly including me) to stay balanced among all the competing psychological problems and normal workaday and family issues and situations everyone has to deal with. Does it make sense for us to get upset about outside-world issues we can't really affect?

I can't do much more than vote or write letters or sign petitions when it comes to any elections, local, state or federal. Don't have the money to donate. I can't affect any of the great financial issues facing the country, again other than signing petitions and writing letters. And as for the global issues! The Greek situation, the riots in England, the war in Libya, the global warming thing, I mean, do I even really have to read the articles about those things?

Each of us has limited energy and attention, particularly as members of PC, with our backgrounds of all kinds of personal troubles. Should we really permit ourselves to deplete our own energy reserves by being sucked into all these issues about which we're reasonably powerless? Right now, I'm tending to think not. It's beginning to seem to me to be just a waste of limited resources. Is such an attitude unpatriotic? Not being a good citizen? What do you think?

Thats a good question, I think about that as well. I used to pay more attention to things that were going on until my own personal battle became a real issue for me. I really had to be careful about what I watched and read about the condition of the US and even things going on in the world. It wasn't that I didn't care, I did care and I had to be careful because I was already battling so many anxiety issues already.

Other than writing letters and voting there is no way on a grand scale to make a difference, I have seen the younger crowd often getting overwhelmed by it all and quite frankly I can't blame them. The only way to personally make improvements is to start in places you can make a difference on a small scale and by doing that, it can form a wave of people that add to that contribution where a postive change can take place. It can be something as simple as not buying products or services where big companies outsource and yet enjoy the benefits of our society and tax cuts and so on. They stopped may of the sweet shop type situations here but it did not stop the inhumanity of them, they just moved them somewhere else. And in reality the one thing we all are is consumers and that is where we can make a statement in a small way and expand.

And one could say that doing that will only hurt us, well, we are already hurting here there and everywhere. I dont know about you but I have an old computer and cell phone. I manage fine, I don't have to have an Iphone and all the other things available now. Oh I am sure these items are very useful but I would rather eat and consider the necessities. There is sooo much to ponder, any one of us could get very easily overwhelmed. But to some degree we do have to pay attention.

I often think of the troops that come home so weary and all the breaucracy they deal with and how their needs don't often get met and I really think that is sad and totally unfair to them. Often these men are afraid to make their needs known and continue to suffer the system that does not meet their needs. So the only way there can be any improvement is to have them find courage to speak up and be heard so that many civilians also know and finally something get done, some of that has already taken place, but continues to become an issue that still carries a lack and still should be addressed. That is another small area that can be a place to start. Talking is often a powerful tool and it is important to hear certain voices and add to those voices until there are enough voices that can embarass a government into taking the right course of action.

And the other issue that one has to consider while reading the news is that much of the news is an opinion and often things occur and different people/news media/ politicians to just name a few, give these conspiracy therories that are really based on hypothesis more than reality. Often that lends to accusations of a group of people verses the few that are corrupt and create bad situations. I tend to be very careful when it comes to those situations because often the whole point is that a few bad people want many people to grow angry and hate another country or those who truely do not have anything to do with the decisions or actions that created a very bad situation.

When someone talks to me like I am a bad American and Americans think and do this and that I get upset because on my level of existance I have little to do with some of the very poor decision making that effect that other person or their country. And I don't just assume the same of them either. However, I am well aware that when someone does do that, they are only falling into a trap, that is often how we end up having a group of common citicizans hating another group. That is what often is needed to create a war. After all, where would one get the troops to fight that war? Too many innocent people lose lives in wars. Maybe we are created or designed to do that to assure a population control, sometimes I wonder.
I have always hated war personally.

Open Eyes

I was taught, from junior high school on, that it was our duty as Americans to pay strict attention to all the news of the day and participate in national issues. I didn't go to any "activist" kind of school system. It was just a regular public school system with no one even "liberal" in it. So way back when they announced "Sputnik" and our guys going up there these were very, very big deals that the whole school paid attention to. And then there was the civil rights campaigns and we all joined into those. I went on those marches in the early sixties, while I was in high school. Heard Martin Luther King in Washington on the Mall. Thought this was what we all had to do. And it probably was, considering we were high school students.

That I agree with. We all have to start small. Start at home. Start with the people in our home towns who are in need. Whether it's Meals on Wheels or helping out at the senior center or the pantry for poor people or help with the homeless, that kind of thing. I don't really mean not to participate in such home town things. I'm really wondering about worrying about these national and global things.

Yes, of course, but how to "we" do that? Do you think that "we" really have any more input on that than calling or emailing our "elected represen-tatives"? I don't think so. It's all begging. Really. Pleading with people in power. I'll make my views known (I send emails to Obama everyday), but I'm not going to beg or plead. No one should have to.

You're absolutely right. Those media people are just manipulating us. And people who believe in conspiracy theories are out of their minds, much more so than folk here on PC. And the ones perpetrating such conspiracy theories are indeed, as you say, "evil people."

No one should ever call you or anyone like you a bad American. Nor should anyone dictate to you just what a "good American" has to do or say. You will make up your OWN mind on that, as a free American. Don't let ANYONE push you around! And you're right, that's how we wind up with so much hate. Enough war! Enough killing! Haven't we had enough since 2001? Do you really think it was such a good idea, just flailing out after 2001? I think it's time to stop. After all, we don't even have enough money to keep going in the way of war. We blew the national treasury on Afghanistan and Iraq. So okay, most of us are poor again. What's going to happen if we keep going?

Well, I guess we got sidetracked. Moved over to issues that aren't central to PC and what we're trying to do here. I started this thread not to discuss non-PC issues, but to point out that people with concerns such as we deal with here on PC shouldn't really feel obligated to act as if they were deputy Secretaries of State or Assistant Attorneys General of the Justice Department. That's all. Nothing political. Nothing activist on any side of the line. We have enough to deal with and shouldn't feel obligated to do more than the minimum when it comes to national or global issues. That's all. Take care.

I don't pay attention to the news, other than for about 5 minutes when we eat dinner in front of the telly or if I see it when I'm out to dinner in a bar-restaurant. Sometimes I'll follow an event, like the hurricane, and watch the other news when they break for that. Sometimes I'll see or hear of something here, or elsewhere online and go look it up.

I don't think it's being a bad citizen or anything. I do research my local people before I vote and get an "impression" of how I like the various national ones; I did listen to the President's speech and my DH listens to others and the debates and things; he's more interested than I am so I can always find out the grosser things going on.

I think there's plenty to do as an individual; buy locally, etc. and that's pretty much what I care about. I'm for the armed forces in the various war zones but my father was military and I came of age during the Vietnam War, etc. so I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the details of whatever wars. The TV "news" these days has too many "talking heads" all with their own spin/objectives and I'm not too interested in more opinions, I want to know what is actually "going on." I don't need the details for that.

I agree with you Ygre23 and I tried to answer you without getting into too much detail or specific current events etc. because I wanted to convey how I look at the current events as a person who is also struggling psychologically.

I do know that PC is a global support site. I really like that because it really allows us as human beings to associate as just human beings who struggle everywhere.
And I did have a couple of brushes where I did reach out to a couple of people from different places just as a human being and I didn't really get a just plain human being response, I was considered an American yada, yada, yada. And I was somewhat disappointed that the interaction happened that way. But I do remain open minded as I have never really spoken to someone in that part of the world before. So I think that it is going to take time to learn how to set that aside and just speak to others as human beings. I have a lot of hope for that because in some ways it is actually a very small positive place to start as I have mentioned in my other post. I can't say I know that I intimately know others human beings around the world, but I am interested in learning on a very human level without the restrictions of whatever is beyond that.

I have no alterior motives as a human being other than just learning about another human being, I do have the capacity for compassion on that level. I would love to put all the other stuff aside and just communicate as human beings. I genuinely want to learn about someone else in another part of the world and how that person addresses life. And I don't see any reason why we cannot offer each other support on that level, because I don't care what color skin someone has, after all that other person is a human being as I am a human being. We all talk about world peace and how much we all want it, but how willing are we to let go of the baggage that prevents us from achieving just that? Hey, I am no Einstein but I do like to reach out and touch the fabric of another human being and learn.

I read another post in your post thread that Foolze posted and it was a very significant post as far as I am concerned, I hope others check it out because that is really how I feel. I would probably be one that would strip naked and sit down next to a person in a padded cell naked and rocking and speachless and sit with that person and see what happens. In many ways I have done just that in my life and one can learn much by being that way. And I am not talking about putting yourself out there for abuse, I am talking about putting yourself out there on a very human basic level.

To be honest with you Ygre23, yes, I am an American and there are a lot of things I appreciate about living in America, but I am also a human being and I feel everyone should have the freedom to live their lives in a way that they can be allowed to be self sustaining freely etc. I have great hopes that by connecting as human beings globally we may find ways to understand each other, I can see hints of that in the younger generation and I see it as a positive thing.

And if someone is here for support in PC and that person is struggling with bad depression or some other issue, I can't expect that person to be oh so worldly and abreast of everything that is going on. Personally, I can't watch the news and see something that is voilent taking place in Iraq or Afganistan or somewhere else and not get upset as I might toss and turn and fill up with anxiety. I honestly don't like to see that, I just don't agree with war and violence. But I have to accept that as being a part of humanity.

It is definitely a personal choice for the struggling members here at PC. I can only say that I personally can only just take so much of it. And if someone else can't do it, well, I understand.
I give you credit in your attempts to keep abreast of what is going on in the world, but I can understand how you may feel somewhat helpless as an individual in what you can do about it.
My constant suggestion is that Big things often come in small packages. If I can listen to a troop struggling here in PC and support that troop's efforts to have the courage to seek help etc. I am very willing to give as much support as I can. Because ultimately they do have to speak up, many of them don't.

Open Eyes

Hi
I read news and I try understand and I want to spread meditation what I feel is the best what I can do.
By the way I am Czech and I do not have any feeling of to be or not to be Czech. My brother complains about it that I am missing a nationality proud. I hope I am a good human being and it is enough.
Take care
Mediator

This is a good conversation. I think about these things a lot too. At times, existence can feel like a struggle as a result. I am constantly trying to learn how to balance my passion for more worldly awareness and the hopeless feelings of how much of it I can change, but I know that either way, I can't turn away from it. I don't know why; maybe it's a combination of learning and human contact (I think someone above mentioned this too).

My opinions do bring up uncomfortable feelings in others, but hey, someone's got to yell "the emperor has no clothes", right? I figure since I'm going to die one day anyway, I might as well die with as little fear as I can through facing those fears head on, exploring myself and my biases, contributing to ongoing and needed discussions, and try my very best to practice kindness.

So, I guess in conclusion, I think some of us may be more likely than others to be concerned about external things, and not all of us can devote the same level of energy to it (depending on a number of factors). But some of us do choose to, and some of us choose not to. Neither is worst than the other. For some people, it can be very healthy to not deal with these things. And for others, it is near essential to our existence to deal with these things.

I rather stay awake over future of Libya and over woe-is-me.

It gives perspective to one's troubles. I visited Kosova this summer. Seeing memorials of freedom fighters as young as 16 is not exactly optimistic thing... but it puts my troubles (oh, am I pretty enough? Good enough? ...) into perspective. I am safe, warm and future is not that bleak.

also, if everybody just cares for themselves and their woes and troubles...the world will be an awful place.

when i run for some political office it will be under slogan "I worry about the world, so you don't have to".

(Emphasis supplied]

Well, Venus, you agree with Professor Kant and his moral imperative, according to which we all have an obligation to act as if we were everybody. I don't know that I agree with that. Just because I decide to "tend my garden" (from Voltaire's Candide), doesn't mean everyone is going to do that. Everyone will make their own choices, and the possibility that everyone will do what I do (the most obscure little retired man in a small town in the provinces) is probably even lower than the possibility of my winning the lottery.

No. The reason I started this thread is because many (most?) people with mental afflictions are already doing several jobs at the same time, and they're doing those jobs while coping with, in many cases, terribly painful and distracting mental problems. And from time to time I see, here on PC, usually in the current events discussion, PC members worrying themselves and bothering themselves over all kinds of things they can't do anything about. And this is on top of all the other things they need to do. Personally, I think they do enough if they vote in each election, and make their views known to their elected representatives via e-mail and snail mail. If they'd like to do more they can volunteer where they live.

I too was taught, as a youngster, to pay close attention to national and world affairs. To read the newspaper everyday. To vote. To join demonstrations. Etc. And that's the way I've lived my life until now. But now I'm 66, my wife has Alzheimer's and I'm her only carer, I'm forced to look for a job because we don't have enough money, and I have to deal with my own mental problems. I think that's enough. I think my plate is full. I don't want to jump on a bus and go to Washington to demonstrate about something. And even if I did, I don't have the money to do so. I think I'll let younger people do what I did at their age, and that is to "get involved." But after forty years of "being involved," I think I can sit out the rest of the dance. Take care!

There is a difference between being unable to do something about the problems of the world and being unwilling to even try.

It is interesting you mention Candide. You substitute the unrealistic optimism of Pangloss (Leibniz) for the disillusionment that caught up with Candide. If you no longer believe "we must cultivate our garden" at least do not try to dissuade those who believe we must try to eradicate the weeds growing in the gardens of the world.

There is a leadership vacuum in the U.S., at least in my view. What Voltaire ridicules goes on today. We face some very serious issues:

So, according to famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, it's time to free ourselves from Mother Earth. "I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space," Hawking tells Big Think. "It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let's hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load." http://bigthink.com/ideas/21570

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” ~ Helen Keller

Oh, but I do very much believe we must cultivate our gardens. That's exactly the point of the quotation. Nor is what I say in any way an acceptance of Panglossian optimism. It's rather an acceptance of the realistic limitations imposed on our individual human lives and efforts. I wouldn't dream of dissuading anyone from doing their best to eradicate the weeds. I do, however, quite sincerely, feel that people of all kinds should be aware of all of their options. Far be it from me to in any way indicate to them that there is some way they "have to be."

I see numbers of people troubling themselves unnecessarily over issues they cannot affect, one way or another, and would like very much to share the message that, considering what they have to do on every normal day, there's a limit to what they need feel they must accomplish in addition.

No question. I most assuredly agree. At the same time, the burdens of so many in our country are so heavy that I think we ought to absolve them from activism as a moral obligation. It's really an academic question, since in our country so few involve themselves as activists anyway. I'm not Saul Alinsky. Are you?

You will have noticed that nowhere have I suggested that people separate themselves from local needs and wants. From local hunger and local shelter and local care for children and the elderly. I simply suggest that there are many people who need no longer feel themselves personally involved when they read of the famines in Somalia, the floods in Pakistan, or the earthquakes in Indonesia.

Helen Keller was great, wasn't she? Take care.

P.S. Your Adorno quote could have been better translated.

In my recovery from alcoholism I was taught that we have no control over people,places or things. That is what gets me through the day. I was a crusader back in the 60's and early 70's and I think that our actions as a group of people were able to end the Vietnam War. I was a news junky but now...if I am to remain sober I avoid the news. I am no longer an activist even though one of my friends is John Sinclair. He was one of the White Panthers and Manager of the rock group MC5. When we see each other we do smoke some weed but we don't talk politics anymore. He has really mellowed out over the years and still is angry with all the corruption but I don't even discuss it with him and won't. I have to avoid things that make me angry.

I think the gardening must begin at home . Until the home gardens are well tended and able to take care of the owner and have enough to share or trade with neighbors, nothing larger will work. This was proven with the Puritans when they first came to America. They tried the "everyone work together on one garden" and it nearly killed them all. It wasn't until each tended his own that the community thrived.

quick reply, ygrec...gotta walk the dog. there is so much overload today to our exposure to the world not to mention our own government, etc. i came from a generation like yours...don't know your age..."write your congressman, follow the news, be involved with community service, vote, etc." while my father was a very successful attorney he always also participated in public service by being elected to local government. he refused being paid. i asked why. he said, it is an honor and a duty that we be a part of our community. he also served in a national capacity unpaid too. so i was given a great example to follow.
i have to a great extent felt my efforts are futile in this present times we live in. i've become cynical about our government's behaviors, ethics and lack of caring about their constituents. i still email all of them tho re issues. even if they don't care it makes me feel better.
vote-yes
community service-yes
help the needy here in our community-yes
do voluteer work-yes
i have encouraged my 2 sons to play a bigger part. i've discussed with both of them that what is happening now will impact them and their children. i'll be gone. they are in their 40's and have children of their own. i'm passing the torch. i've lived by example. my artist/actor son was doing a lot of public awareness on the web. i added that if he wanted change where he lives, CA, then he needs to consider running for office even if my political views are not his. he and friends also pass out flyers to the public on their topics of concern. the other son stays informed too tho not as much as an activist. right now he's "playing politics" to protect his military career. his contribution mostly has been to lay his life on the line by serving in our military. (not a popular subject i know but i'm very proud of him.)
i believe many, many people feel discouraged with our world today. like their opinion or help doesn't count. as for us, pc members, we do what we feel we can do. our mental stability comes first, imo. if things are too overwhelming then we need to help ourselves first.
so my opinion to your excellent, thought provoking question may not be viewed to all in a positive light. that's ok.
BTW it's good to "see" you again. i have always liked your postings and questions to us. seeker of knowledge and understanding, ygrec, you are.
PS poor doggie!!!
PSS sorry i got so way off topic!

Absolutely.

This was really the basis of my OP. Most of us are trying to combine being parents, being spouses, working and all at the same time as having mental problems! Don't tell me PC people have spare time! Don't tell me PC people can use their spare hours to network for their causes! It's just not true. There IS no spare time.

Some people thought I meant for everybody to just walk off the job politically. And that's not true. All I meant was that mentally challenged people who haven't inherited millions of dollars have quite a few other things to do before they get to saving the world. That's all. (sigh)

Take care!

(((((Ygrec23)))))Well there are lots of posts here that are very informative and food for thought.

When I posted I was thinking more about the PC members that are really struggling with their issues and as JD puts it, one cannot tend any other garden before they learn how to tend their own.

And as far as the younger crowd goes, some may be strong enough to make efforts in a substancial way and some may not have that capacity at the moment, I certainly wouldn't want to add any more sense of duty to someone who may be struggling just to hang onto wanting to keep attemping life itself, never mind looking at everything else.

I was thinking more on a level where people in PC are struggling and making a basic attempt to meet others on a global basis and work together inspite of the goeings on in the world that are something these people truely cannot deal with at the moment.

I am certainly not going to make any efforts to throw someone in the deep end of a pool when they are only just capable of wading at the moment. Though I see the intellectual depths and sense of a strong desire to contribute on a higher level in this thread, well, my hat goes off to you. But I do know where I am in this conversation, a place where people are really struggling, just with their own gardens.

Ygrec, I understand your original question in this thread and where we are, and the more I learn about you the more impressed I am. You amaze me at how much you put forth not only efforts to find ways to communicate your obvious intelligence, but you honestly care about finding ways to reach out to others that is productive. And now I find that you are caring for a wife with alzheimers too? God bless you is all I can say to that. And as I see you still try to keep abreast of the goeings on in this world as well, well, I couldn't really expect any more of you. However what I admire about you is that you continue to want to give more of yourself and think about others.

Madisgram, your always impressing me, what can I say? I already think you are rich in quality and then I see something even richer there.

Byz, you always give me much food for thought as even though I struggle you can tease my intellect and that really helps.

Venus, it sounds like you had a reality check this summer, good for you, your already pretty enough, don't worry about that, and I like to see that you have found some comfort where you are and a bigger appetite to once again ponder positive imput and direction.

Personally there are some really nice people in PC, right now I would like to see them get on their feet and even though theres so much going on, I would like to see them first find strength to tend their own gardens, so to speak.

Open Eyes

Yes, Open Eyes, my point exactly. People who need all their time to "tend their own garden" shouldn't feel, or be made to feel, as if they were in some way ignoring their obligations. Nor, to my mind, need they get themselves upset about suffering in distant parts of the world when they need all their time and energy to care for themselves and their family.

Taking care of one's self and one's family is absolutely everyone's primary obligation that comes before anything else. If anyone has time or energy left over after that there are many, many opportunities to be of service within one's own community.

The media are full of news about far-off suffering in distant lands about which we can do little other than contribute money, if we have any to spare. The pictures and the news reports are heartwrenching, and many of us, seeing and hearing them, feel badly that there's little we can do. I don't think we ought to feel badly about misery we can do nothing to help. That's for governments and NGO's and people like Bill and Melissa Gates, or just people like us if we have a few hundred dollars a year to parcel out to different charities. But we mustn't let it get us down if we don't have that money. Most of us are doing the best we can, and that's all that can be asked of us.

Take care.

Ygrec, I was raised in the same era as you. I was also raised in a religion that taught we were obligated to be involved and do for others. In my family of origin I was the "responsible" one. In my younger days I felt it was my responsibility to "turn the crank" that ran the world. I put doing for others and the world ahead of my own needs. I ended up crashing and burning big time.

Today, my beliefs mirror what JD said about tending our own gardens. I have limited energy and resources. I can NOT take care of the whole world. I have to pick and chose what I focus on. It also depends on where I am in my own head and life. I pick and chose how much news I expose myself too. My health does not allow me to go out and march, protest, etc. I vote. I do what I can. But I had to learn I could not be resposible for the whole world.

I believe it was Ghandi who once said we must be the change we want to see in the world.

Each of us can choose to make our lives and our communities better places to live. There are many ways to this of course. Through charitable labor and giving as mentioned above. The act of starting a business and hiring folks is another. Teaching entrepreneurial skills to the disadvantaged yet one more. The company I work sets aside one day for employees can take off to volunteer to help out the community by being involved with projects like food banks, charity auctions etc... I think personally this is a good thing.

There are always things we cannot control around us and all we can do is adapt to changing circumstances the best we can. In the end we only control our perceptions and conclusions.

With you all the way, Liz. I think all of us need to feel that we're not responsible for the whole world. Take care!

You're right, Tim. There are things we can do if we have the necessary time and money. But most of those things are right in our own neighborhoods. Ninety percent of the headlines we read in newspapers have to do with things we can't even hope to do anything about. There's no sense in even reading the articles. Reading a cookbook is more relevant to our lives than the world news. Yes, they're having a famine in Somalia. Well, I don't even have ten dollars to send to whoever is trying to get them food. Or the Libyan revolution. Or coalminers in China. You know. In a sense it's entertainment, but it's not entertaining, it just injects some more cortisol into our veins, which no one needs at all. Take care!

I find it curious that this thread is right next to this thread: What Can the Mentally Ill Do As a Group? ( 1 2) Ygrec23