This will be my final Thinking Critically column. I have decided to go a different direction. You might say I am giving up in a way. Consider it my retirement from caring.
All my life, I’ve wanted to make some kind of difference. In more youthful times, I volunteered my musical talent—such as it was—to various causes, Rock Against Racism, for example. I had at one time hoped one day to have the clout of, say, a Bruce Springsteen, who by virtue of his fame and fortune is having an impact on anti-gay legislation in North Carolina. Or is he? Legislators aren’t budging and the backlash is profound. For heaven’s sake, Donald Trump could be the next president of the United States.
More recently, I volunteered as the communications person for Bad Science Watch. That organization lobbied hard against homeopathic nosodes and Health Canada ultimately forced manufacturers of those magical potions to label them with a warning that, basically, they don’t do anything. I’m not sure whether Bad Science Watch had anything to do with that outcome, but it was an empty victory.
It does not stop quacks from selling them and it does not stop people from believing in them. In fact, many people have doubled down, chalking it up to a conspiracy of the mainstream medical establishment.
The thing is, it is almost impossible to judge whether or not you are having an impact. And even if you do in some small way, perhaps only very locally, the bigger picture is so complex as to be overwhelming. It is a global game of whack-a-mole. Stop an outbreak one Ebola here and a rash of a formerly eradicated childhood disease pops up there.
I’ve been writing this column for almost four years and I have no iota of an idea whether it has been the least bit effective. In fact, about the best I can hope for is that it has been interesting and/or entertaining for a few people.
The world does not change much. In fact, in a lot of ways it gets stupider every day. As long as there are greedy people willing to sell nonsense to gullible people, the things that drive me crazy will continue to exist and even if one gets discredited another will pop up in its place.
But that is not even what it is about. Just because you don’t have an impact, or that it is very small, or that it is unknowable, is no reason to stop trying.
The fact of the matter is I just don’t have the right temperament for activism because the things I want to change just make me angry. I’m tired of being angry and it’s not good for my health.
So, I am turning over a new leaf. I am going to try to accept the world the way it is rather than futilely attempt to force it to be what I want it to be.
I have maybe 20 years left, at the outside 30 or 40 if I’m lucky, possibly only two weeks if I’m really unlucky, who knows.
For whatever time I have left, I am going to try to channel my energy into things that make me happy, rather than things that make me angry.
In the tenure of our species, we haven’t changed much. We have achieved great feats of technology and artistry, but we are still scared, vicious, brutal and superstitious animals headed for premature extinction because in so many ways we are too smart for our own good.
And there is really nothing I can do about it.
I was going to say that I am grateful that I have passed on my critical thinking skills to my children, but I’m not so sure about that. I sometimes think it must be blissful to just accept nonsense since that is what mostly gets served up in this world.
I’m not 100 per cent sure what will show up in this space next week, but it won’t be what it has been.
My retirement is a selfish act, a case of self-preservation. The world is now on its own.
