It is the weekend after Thanksgiving, and by now we’ve been – and continue to be – exhorted by every opinion writer in the English-speaking world to “give thanks for our blessings.” In other words, we are asked to “feel grateful,” i.e. “feel gratitude.”
This sense is most often urged upon us at the individual level in the sense of “count your blessings.” There’s a standard list of things we checklist here: Do you enjoy good health? Check, feel gratitude. Are you surrounded – not just at the holidays, but generally – by a loving family? Check, feel gratitude. Do you have good friends with whom you enjoy good times? Check, feel gratitude.
Most opinion writers/ op-ed columnists/ bloggers may stop there, as if health, a stable and loving family, and friends – all of which belong to the personal sphere of well-being – came out of nowhere (poof!) and are simply goods bequeathed us by chance. In fact, we often implicitly acknowledge this when we say “I’m so lucky to have x, y, z.”
Let’s continue our checklist by widening the individual net a bit.
Do you have a job that (a) pays you enough to live comfortably for the foreseeable future? (b) is secure? (c) provides you with a sense that what you do to make a living makes your life meaningful?
Are you in debt for college loans you’ve taken out? How much of your gross income goes to loan repayment each month?
Do you have health insurance that adequately covers both yourself and your family members?
Do you have enough savings put aside to cover a medical emergency (i.e. can you meet the costs of your deductible each year, assuming you’re insured?) Can you afford car repairs if your car breaks down or you’re in an accident?
Do you live in a home that (a) is owned outright or (b) has an affordable mortgage? Can you heat and cool that home adequately throughout the year? Is it insured in case of a man-made or natural disaster?
If you have all these in addition to health, a loving family, and good friends, then your reasons for feeling gratitude are substantially increased.
Now let’s look at a few bigger-picture checklist items.
Does the city-town-village where you live provide good services, namely safe and welcoming public schools, well-stocked libraries, reliable transport, parks and recreational facilities, exercise and sports opportunities, humane care for the disabled-elderly, and a high level of public safety?
Is the neighborhood-community-region where you live environmentally intact, that is, do you enjoy the benefits of clean soil for your children to play in, clean air for them – and you – to breathe, and clean water in abundance for drinking and other household-related uses?
Do you enjoy the benefits of a trustworthy and honest government at all levels, from local to national? Do you feel your School Board/City Council members, your state representatives and senators, and your federal-level representatives well and truly represent you and your fellow-citizens?
Is your country characterized by a moderate political climate, one in which there may be differing views about how to address the major issue of the 21st century, but where there is a general consensus about what that issue is?
Does your community/ state/ country plan to invest heavily in climate-resilient infrastructure over the coming decades? Examples here would include new heating/cooling/insulation infrastructure (=non-carbon sources of energy and energy conservation), transportation infrastructure, and water infrastructure.
Is your country experiencing a time of peace, or is it embroiled in one or more conflicts at home or abroad? The answer to this question affects whether your country can financially justify the massive investment needed to adapt to a climatically-uncertain future.
Our point here is that “gratitude,” while characterized as a personal-individual feeling (the sense of having been granted some “good” without any particular expectation of reciprocation, or perhaps even without the possibility for reciprocation, in contrast to the sense of “indebtedness,” where there is a requirement for reciprocation), does not really come to us by chance, but rather as the culmination of factors and circumstances in which we as individuals play only bit parts. And if the foundations of personal gratitude aren’t laid at the communal level, well, the chances of being able to experience gratitude become commensurately smaller at the individual level.
Let’s imagine the case of someone who enjoys all – or nearly all – of the benefits listed above. Starting at the macro level, they live in a country that’s at peace, which allows it to invest substantially in addressing climate change (new forms of energy, resilient public and private structures, mass transportation), and where there’s agreement all along the political spectrum from left to right that that is the top priority for the country and its residents.
As a result of this nature-driven but politically-indispensable decision, there is plenty of work to be done, and jobs are readily available. Wages enable all to survive adequately if not luxuriously; the housing stock is refurbished and rendered resilient – and new housing is built to specifications designed to survive extreme weather fluctuations. New sources of energy are affordable and clean, or at least far cleaner than carbon-based energy was. Environmental pollutants and heavily-toxic areas (so-called “dead zones”) are rigorously regulated by the EPA so that no child or adult is exposed to excessive doses of carbon-based fumes, heavy metals, or other toxic chemicals.
Cities, towns, and small communities, buoyed economically by world-scale public investment in climate resiliency and a cleaner environment, become better able to fund core public services, which themselves have been made climate-resilient. Some of these services are communal (schools, libraries, parks, mass transit), while others are focused on the individual (care for the disabled and elderly).
In this hypothetical scenario, no one goes hungry (including children, of course). No one has to choose between food and life-saving medicine or medical treatment. No one is evicted from their rental housing because rents are automatically linked to income. No one’s health or home is left uninsured. “Education for all” means, literally, free education for all.
For some of us, the baseline requirements if human life is to continue through this and into the next century are sufficiently satisfied at the micro level that we have the wherewithal to enjoy good health, the means to bring up our families in a secure and warm (in both the literal and metaphorical sense) environment, and sufficient leisure to cultivate friendships throughout most of our lives. We live in “good” (and environmentally intact) neighborhoods; we can survive comfortably on a single income – or two, if we’re married – and have 8 of each 24 hours to devote to our spouse or significant other and family. And that margin of financial security also enables us to devote time to recreational and volunteer activities, to groups whose interests mirror our own, and thus to cultivating long-term friendships among those with whom we come into frequent, regular contact.
It turns out that “gratitude” is more complicated than we might initially have imagined – there’s actually a minimal prerequisite even for health, family, and friendship that doesn’t depend on us alone.
But because gratitude is normally seen as a purely individual feeling – and in that, it accords conveniently with the highly individualistic, atomistic nature of contemporary western society – we rarely if ever pause to consider how much it depends on factors beyond our individual control. Too often, gratitude devolves into an attitude of “Thanks be, I’ve got mine,” as we conveniently ignore the fact that many millions of our fellow human beings haven’t got theirs.
Why doesn’t this sense that we’re alright (which gives rise to “gratitude”) while others are suffering (not because they’re “ungrateful,” but because they have precious little cause for “gratitude”) engender another profound sense within us – namely, that of shame? Shame that while we may rise, others will not?
Out of shame, that oppressive sense that somehow we have transgressed both the social and ethical/moral law, another sense often arises: that of anger.
And out of anger – like shame, an uncomfortable emotion and one we’d often like to eradicate – comes action, action that might lead to millions (billions) of our fellow-humans’ being able to feel the same gratitude that we feel over this holiday weekend.
Feeling gratitude for all the good things one has been given (always keeping in mind, however, that these good things are a “gift,” not a “given) isn’t wrong; gratitude soothes our pain over inevitable loss and makes it possible for us to face the future with a lighter heart.
But surely there is space in the contemporary Western psyche for other feelings, among them shame, anger, and a will to act that others might also be given these gifts we so appreciate.
Let’s not let our sense of gratitude get in the way of righteous anger – because righteous anger might just lead to action, and action to saving both our planet and ourselves from devastation.