MAKE 2018 A YEAR OF OPTIMISM

TODAY is the last day of 2017 and we are standing on the threshold of the New Year 2018. This is a special time for Guyanese people as from the middle of December, they began preparing for both Christmas and the New Year.

Homes were thoroughly cleaned and spruced up and everyone worked not only to have a joyous Christmas but also quietly prepared for the New Year. During the days after Boxing Day, people assiduously tried to put their financial affairs in order and to complete things undone before the beginning of the New Year. Everyone tried to bring a closure to the Old Year and embark upon the New Year shorn of the burdens of the Old. This emanates from the belief that in whatever mental and physical state the New Year found you, that condition will persist throughout the year.

In the last evening of the Old Year, therefore, most people try to ensure that they and their children are well attired, have eaten to their fill, have clear minds, and offer prayers to God, for those who believe in God. Many also attend parties and dances so that the advent of the New Year will find them in a state of pleasurable enjoyment. Auld Lang Syne, that anthem of the New Year, is sung and heard everywhere. That anthem is very appropriate with which to begin the New Year since it nostalgically recalls the good things of the Old and looks with optimism at the arrival of the New.

New Year resolutions and the planning of the New Year are usually done on the first or second day of January. Unfortunately, such planning is slightly disturbed with a streak of pessimism which has infected the national psyche over the last several years. This is caused by the slight feeling of uncertainty regarding the social, economic and political milieu in which people will find themselves.

If we can exorcise this unconscious pessimism which so insidiously affects our psyches, we will attain greater productivity and creativity and be much happier. But arriving at and maintaining an optimism of mind are not achieved by merely wishing for it. It is achieved by intellectual effort and being guided by the wisdom which the great teachers of the past have bequeathed to Mankind. Among such great teachers are Lord Jesus, Lord Krishna, Lord Buddha and the Prophet Muhammad.

Lord Buddha, for example, gives a formula for driving out pessimism: “What wise person with strong enthusiasm is discouraged? Those engaged in attaining enlightenment, seeing the drawbacks of lethargy and sleepiness, spend their time in making constant enthusiastic effort. Those who make enthusiastic effort will have no difficulty in accomplishing every worldly act.”

One of the main social issues which generate pessimistic feelings is the projection in the media that there is widespread racism in the country and one would be enveloped in it without any chance of escape. Actually, if citizens were to intellectually analyse the realities, they would find that their fears are illusory. Our members visit downtown Georgetown every day and travel by the public transport, especially the minibuses, and there is nothing but friendliness among the various racial groups with people proffering hundreds of acts of kindness to each other. There is no open racial tension among the various groups.

The only section that speaks of racism are the politicians and the politically aligned and it is the words and actions of these people which are reported in the media projecting the impression that the country is a racial embroglio. But strangely to observe, the whole political section and those who are politically aligned are themselves individually not racist but are entrapped in a determinist mould where they must speak or act in ways which could be interpreted as racist imbued with the facile and unfactual belief that it is the only way to garner political support.

The way of changing this situation and removing the racist illusion is for ordinary folk, as individuals and as groups, to speak in person with the politically aligned whenever they appear to say or do anything which could be interpreted as racist and let them know their failings. If this is done, racism would gradually begin to fade away and politically aligned people would understand that ordinary folk are no longer an emotional vote bank.

If the media and the education system could also constantly deliver the message that meritocracy is the best criterion for progress and development of society, much better than other criteria such as racism or nepotism, this would assist ordinary folk in their efforts to help the politically aligned to free themselves from the determinist racist mold in which they are entrapped.

In further exorcising pessimism and strengthening our optimism in 2018, we should remind ourselves that the past and future do not exist and it is only the present which does. A lot of our misjudgements and disappointments, and indeed pessimism, lie in the fact that we often treat past and future as if they were as existent as the present. Once we assimilate this truth, we would be more focused and we would act in the present.

The other truth we often neglect is the fact that everything has a negative and a positive and if we are affected by an unfortunate or difficult happening, we should try to discover the positive side of that happening and make use of it. This truth is captured in the old saying: “Behind every dark cloud there is a silver lining.”

If we were to be always conscious of these truths when addressing our economic and other problems, our chances of being successful would be greater.
In 2018, we could, therefore, rid ourselves of all vestiges of pessimism and approach our resolutions and plans with a clarity of mind and optimism and full hope of success.

2018 could be a good year for all!

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
All our printed editions are available online
emblem3
Subscribe to the Guyana Chronicle.
Sign up to receive news and updates.
We respect your privacy.