Interesting Times

Have you seen the movie Miracle? The movie about the 1980 US hockey team that beat the USSR team? Of course being a sports fan, I LOVE that story. Something that the movie does pretty well is set the backdrop of why it was such a big deal for the US to win that game during that time.

The early 1980s were a very difficult time for the US. There was stagflation, unemployment was very high, several percentage points higher then than it is now. The bigger problem might have been how weak the dollar was, which ignited inflation that Paul Volcker had to aggressively curb as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Energy was super expensive. On top of all that, we had just come off some serious foreign policy blunders by the Carter administration. It was a bad time for the United States.

While watching the movie, I wondered to myself what that must have been like to live in an era like that, when pessism is rampant and seemingly for good reason. And I think now that I'm actually living in that time.

The interesting part to me is that I really wonder if these times are really that bad. Unemployment is high, but not as bad as at other points in recent American history, despite what you might hear from all the media outlets. Personally, I haven't been that affected by the downturn, but that's because I'm a student and not a contributing member of society. I know my parents have been feeling it. I don't know though. I kind of think pessimism is a very contagious disease.

There is a dumb story that psychologists tell to illustrate projection and it goes something like this: at work the boss finds out that his company's return is not as big as he expected so while in his fit of anger he yells at his secretary about not having his files organized or something to that effect; upset about how her boss treated her at work, the secretary goes home to her husband later that day and unloads on him for not fixing something like he had said he would; the husband, in turn, still fuming from having his wife nag him about something that he really hasn't had time for yells at his son for not making his bed that morning; unable to voice his frustration and take his anger out on anyone else, the boy kicks the dog on his way back to his room.

The passing along of anger is similar to the ways in which pessimism spreads. Not knowing how else to handle the feelings that we're experiencing, we let it out in myriad other ways - bad attitudes, sour outlooks, etc. - and this hinders our capacity for our best efforts. How often does your best work come when you're feeling upset/angry/frustrated/depressed/pessimistic?

I loved that article I had posted earlier this week by Ben Stein because his perspective in that article belies the attitudes of everyone else that is in the media. In that article, he pointed out a number of other people who had to rise up in spite of how difficult the contemporary circumstances were, his own father being the primary example. If we're serious about being successful, then it requires us to stay hopeful even among the most dire of times, perceived or real. No matter how bad things might sound to you on the whole, most people are still getting by. While unemployment during the Great Depression was at something like 25%, that still means that 75% of everyone were still working. It may not have been under the best circumstances, they may have had meager incomes, but most people were still getting making it.

And the thing about all of this too is that out of the most trying times, we can often find our greatest opportunities. Trials force us to adjust quickly. We need to be very reflexive and adaptive in our response to setbacks, and this method of behavior becomes exaggerated and entirely necessary when difficulties are at their worst. If not, then we simply can't survive, but even then, somehow we almost always do. I guess what it comes down to is at what level you want to emerge after the storm makes its landfall.

The thing about that projection story is not just that they all dealt with their anger in poor ways, but that the cycle could have been stopped by any one of them. It only takes one person to say "no" and for an entirely new cycle to emerge. It's like that quote I have at the top of this blog...if you don't like how things are progressing, then all that's required is for you to stand up against it. Easier said than done, of course, but every one of us is still a free agent in deciding which direction we decide to go, no matter how difficult the circumstances.