A really new New Year

I suspect that staggering numbers of people are, like me, counting the nanoseconds until 2009 is over. It’s been a curse – and perhaps odd good luck, too – that we’ve all had to live through an unusually difficult and interesting year.

For even though an awful lot has fallen apart or exploded and made us suffer, sometimes terribly, we are beginning to see one another decide to change. And that’s the first, most important step in creatively improving ourselves and our world.

The next is to invent ways of making that change positive and effective. The processes of creativity can be painful and frustrating, as in health-care reform, or astounding and exhilarating, as in the overflow of communications-technology miracles that seems to pour endlessly from the brains of Google and Apple staffers. It almost doesn’t matter which – the prospect of movement is ecstasy after so much stagnation in so many areas of life and society. Better systems and better results will eventually roll out  in a slow, but lasting and satisfying evolution.

Franklin Roosevelt was talking about the Great Depression when he said that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,”  but his words speak just resonantly to imagination, self-expression and progress.  It takes courage to change what doesn’t work, equal courage to envision and adopt what does.

People of great brain and heart are always quietly at work on the future, even during humanity’s darkest times, but when the rest of us join with them to embrace new ideas and possibilities, our accomplishments become exponential: We bring forth a Renaissance, an Enlightenment,  an Industrial Revolution, a Modern Times.  

We’re standing right now on the upward slope of a vast Creative Age in which instantaneous access to the whole of human knowledge and ideas will produce ingenious creations of deep thought, feeling and useful application in an abundance the Earth has never before witnessed. It won’t  be a breeze, but it will be amazing and stimulating. And, if we aren’t afraid to face the hard work of thinking, of not depending on the familiar and the easy, it will make us and our planet wiser, healthier, more skilled, compassionate, tolerant and prosperous. 

And if those aren’t the ingredients of happiness and love, I don’t know what are. I hope 2010  is the start of it all for everyone.

A good knight’s work

Barack Obama seems to be setting a good example of not letting fear stymie creativity.

In his speech to Congress last night, the U.S.president countered the absurd rumors circulating about health-care reforms (death panels, incipient communism) by bluntly calling them what they are: lies. He also made it pretty clear that he’s not going to cave on the innovative elements he wants to see in a revised health-insurance program, such as a “marketplace” of insurance options, including government-sponsored plans, for individuals and employers of varying means to choose from. He also pointed out – not insultingly, but unmistakably – that supporters of the Bush administration are in no position to question the cost of providing health care to the American people when they’re the ones who overwhelmingly supported spending billions on the Iraq war and cutting taxes for the extremely rich.

It was a speech that rode in, took an unshakable moral and policy stance and delivered knockout offensive blows while simultaneously conveying fresh ideas and the hope and expectation that  left and right will unite in an effort to think up even more.  

Whether or not you like the ideas or Obama himself, you’d have a hard time claiming that it wasn’t a bold speech. And boldness – guts, spine, heart and brains – is what we need more of in our thinking and our actions. It takes courage to invent new ways of solving our problems, but it take even more to make sure the best ones are put to use, in spite of other people’s reluctance, resentment, knee-jerk opposition and attempts at sabotage .

P.S. And how nice to see a president act boldly in the interest of actually helping people. Maybe before Obama’s term is up, all of us will be able to afford annual check-ups.

Fear freezes minds, but opens lungs

In any discussion, you can be pretty sure that when the volume goes up, the  level of thinking plummets. So it seems obvious from all the shouting coming out of the health-care-reform town-hall meetings that quite a few Americans have surrendered their brains to their all-conquering emotions and, like babies, are throwing tantrums in hopes of panicking the remaining adults into doing what they want them to do. 

Which is nothing. Nothing new, anyway.

And why? I refer you to the three smartest and most honest words I’ve heard anyone say so far about why some people oppose revising our messed-up health system or revising anything at all:

“Fear of change.” 

Toby Cosgrove said that.  He’s a physician and head of the Cleveland Clinic, but I don’t think it takes a medical degree for the rest of us to understand the psychology he cites. People frequently resist the unknown. The unfamiliar scares us. We want to be in control of our situations at all times so we don’t get 1) eaten; 2) humiliated; or 3) trapped into making a speech. We don’t wanna try the slimy green glop, even though Mom says it’s only pea soup and we actually like peas.

 Trouble is, fear of the new means you’re too afraid to be creative. And so you’re stuck with whatever you’ve already got, no matter how awful it is. But some people actually choose being stuck. They say they prefer the devil they know to the devil they don’t, totally ignoring the likelihood that their bad situation won’t stay the same, but get even worse if neglected. 

Our ultimate problem is, therefore, not getting health care and health insurance to be affordable and available to anyone who needs them, although that’s a biggie. Our real problem is how to get people to stop being afraid of the changes required by creative thinking and action. 

And how the heck do you do that?

I think the long-term answer is a better and more creative educational system, one that encourages imaginative thinking and develops the skills of invention – in math, arts, sciences, engineering, physical education, everything - in every student. One that helps people overcome their fear of the unknown and learn to relish the adventure. If we turn out people who are more creative, confident, calm and courageous, we’ll be able to fix a lot more of what’s wrong  with the world. And without all the shouting. 

But we’re no likelier to sensibly and effectively overhaul our educational system than our health-care industry, at least right now.  Maybe what we have to start with is only this: a determination to keep our public discourse civil. If we insist on tougher and better-enforced rules about disruptions and raised voices in public meetings; an organized array of impartial fact-checkers and debunkers, such as nonpartisan panels of experts sponsored by nonprofit organizations, to immediately counter outrageous propaganda with facts; and a pledge from all elected officials to set an example by listening, thinking and by speaking quietly when – and only if – they have something constructive to say,  the national tone will moderate, tempers will subside and usable ideas will develop.

Usually, it takes a world war to get Americans working together for the public good.  If we try, we might be able to convince ourselves that a prosperous peace is worth the same effort.