There’s STILL always good news

Back in January, I wrote about good news, how it’s always there and usually ignored. I posted two videos that made that point. The video above from Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield is another example of good news we ignore.

The video talks about all the good things going on in the world, and, yes, it clearly promotes the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. So what? They’re trying to make the world a better place, and that’s really the point Hadfield is trying to make: DO something!

He world is a far better place than we humans like to admit. I talked about that back in January, and that led me to try An Experiment, publishing posts looking at unreported and under reported good news stories, along with the good news aspect of an otherwise negative story. I did that on Mondays (because it’s often a very depressing day by itself), and next month I plan to try the experiment again.

We all get dragged down by the tragedies we see in life—accidents, disease, armed conflict and war, social unrest—it can be overwhelming. Which is exactly why I think we need some good news, too, as a sort of antidote.

But I also think something Hank Green said in his “The Golden Gate Bridge Didn't Collapse!!” video I posted back in that January post is important. He said: “I’ve got nothing against caution, we should be cautious, but we should also not be pessimistic, because that’s just going hold us back.” He’s right, but there’s something more: Pessimism makes us give up, withdraw, opt out and tune out at a time the world needs us to engage.

I’m a big advocate of voting, that the main way, in my view, to make our societies more just, fair, and equal is to participate in the political process. But there’s so much more beyond mere politics, plenty of things for non-political (and even anti-political) people to choose from.

That was the main point in Chris Hadfield’s video. Everyone can do something to help—we just need to choose to be positive, because we have so much reason to be positive.