Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
History as an antidote to despair - Dan Harris
DUers may be familiar with Dan Harris, former ABC News anchor and now the host of the 10% Happier podcast:
https://pod.link/1087147821
I thought this article from his Substack offered a timely and helpful perspective.
History as an antidote to despair
Consider this the next time the news freaks you out
When you consume the news these days, it’s easy to conclude that things have never been worse. Easy to conclude—but wrong.
This misapprehension is the result of recency bias, where we mistakenly give greater weight to things that just happened. One countermeasure against this cognitive distortion is to study history.
Consider Abraham Lincoln. Dude was president at a time when half the country preferred war to abandoning slavery. His life was under constant threat by his enemies. In his personal life, two of his sons had died in childhood and he was struggling with crippling depression.
And yet, during his second inaugural address in 1865, he called for “malice towards none.”
Take that in. The Civil War was coming to a bloody end; he had survived multiple assassination attempts; he was struggling with grief and depression—and he called for malice toward none.
I find this kind of perspective to be extraordinarily helpful when I’m experiencing anxiety over the 2024 presidential election. Things have definitely been worse, and we’ve pulled through.
- More at link: https://www.danharris.com/p/history-as-an-antidote-to-despair
Consider this the next time the news freaks you out
When you consume the news these days, it’s easy to conclude that things have never been worse. Easy to conclude—but wrong.
This misapprehension is the result of recency bias, where we mistakenly give greater weight to things that just happened. One countermeasure against this cognitive distortion is to study history.
Consider Abraham Lincoln. Dude was president at a time when half the country preferred war to abandoning slavery. His life was under constant threat by his enemies. In his personal life, two of his sons had died in childhood and he was struggling with crippling depression.
And yet, during his second inaugural address in 1865, he called for “malice towards none.”
Take that in. The Civil War was coming to a bloody end; he had survived multiple assassination attempts; he was struggling with grief and depression—and he called for malice toward none.
I find this kind of perspective to be extraordinarily helpful when I’m experiencing anxiety over the 2024 presidential election. Things have definitely been worse, and we’ve pulled through.
- More at link: https://www.danharris.com/p/history-as-an-antidote-to-despair