On letting go of habits and ideas that do not serve us in this moment.
In his second annual message to Congress, Abraham Lincoln wrote:
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”
I have been reflecting on these words lately. This moment, for all its challenges, is not the same as the one with which Lincoln contended — we do not face a crisis of slavery and civil war, though the legacy of both continues to echo through history. However, our occasion is “piled high with difficulty,” and our case is indeed new. We face a range of intersecting, novel challenges that has made this an era unlike any other. Political disruptions, climate change, technological developments such as AI, and global conflict have made this a time of difficulty, a stormy present. These challenges beg important questions: How should we respond in this moment? What should we — can we — do to build a better world when the one we have seems to be so much in extremis?
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