I found this quote of Karl Popper sometime ago. This statement is rather powerful and has much meaning and relevance for me so I would like to share a few thoughts.
First of all, I don't consider myself a pessimist. I value truth, goodness, meaning, reason and beauty. I disagree pretty much with any stance that does not value these things and in that order. That means, I dislike cynicism, nihilism and anything else that undermines these values as these stances offer nothing more than despair and they also burn every bridge and shut every door behind them.
However, there is also another stance that makes me very skeptical and I consider it far more dangerous at times. This stance is blissful thinking, a certain kind of naive optimism that seems to have plagued the world nowadays. In my belief, the advances is science, the growth of knowledge but foremost the presumable improvement in the standards of living act all as the breeding ground of this kind of thinking. Speaking in general and especially for those who live in the ''West'' one cannot disagree that we live privileged lives compared to our ancestors ( and a huge part of the rest of the world...). I don't necessarily consider progress a bad thing. There are two questions though that are absolutely essential to be considered whenever we talk about progress. These two question are ''At what cost?'' and ''To whose benefit?''. I consider these questions indispensable and I don't think I have to add much here.
Going back to the quote of Karl Popper there are two words that strike me. The first one is the word ''promise''. A promise by itself is not again necessarily bad but a promise is just a promise. Simply, until the moment of realization, a promise is empty. If there is an inability to fulfill your promise, then it would be far wiser not to make it in the first place and that is a lesson I have learned through the hard way. Promises are promises and nothing more.
The second word that made me wonder, and very much related to the first one, is the preposition ''on''. The quest for a better world is indeed a noble one. I respect and admire people who fight everyday for a better future, without them the world would be a totally different place. As one can tell you though, their fight, does not come without a price. This is the the crux of the whole point. If you fight for a better world and you do that sincerely, you will soon understand that you have to sacrifice something, you have a price to pay. This is the only way how things can change. If you want to change the world, you can't do it for free and an action speaks volumes compared to a single promise. Simply, this world cannot change without sacrifices! Don't expect things to change for the good on their own, this is blissful thinking...
Or as the Greek poet Odysseas Elytis brilliantly says in his ''Άξιον Εστί'' ( Worthy it is ) :
One is the swallow
and so precious is the spring
To make the Sun turn
it takes a lot of work
It takes the dead, to be under
the wheels by the thousands
and it takes from the Living
their own blood to be giving.
Lyrics: Odysseas Elytis
Music: Mikis Theodorakis
Acting: Grigoris Mpithikotsis
Image taken from https://www.pinterest.com/explore/karl-popper/
Thank you for reading!!!
Well when you think about politics and everything going on on our planet nowadays, you realize that it is true. Nice quote and post. Thank you for sharing :)
You're welcome @hanen!
For me the problem is when people think that there are always easy solutions when it comes to solving problems... Simply this isn't the case, things don't change for the good on their own, we also have to put up a fight and endure the harsh reality if we want to dream of a better world!