Enough Already with All of the Doomsday Rhetoric

There’s a lot to be grateful for in life

Is the world a terrible place? Kind of. Is everything falling apart? Maybe. But focusing on that and obsessing over every piece of news is not great.

You’d have to live under the sea to miss out on the chaos we live in. A lot of things are broken and in a lot of cases, it feels irreparably broken. At least, that’s what everyone everywhere keeps saying. It’s all over the news, it’s what your friends are telling you, and it’s the leading message on social media too. Society kind of seems to be failing.

But it’s doomsday rhetoric and when you heavily engage in that side of thinking you start to lose grip on all the incredible things that are going on in your life.

It’s Nothing New

Doomsday rhetoric isn’t new. When everything feels chaotic and stressful it’s normal to suddenly feel as though everything is going to come crashing down. It’s true throughout history and it’s reflected in movies, television, and books. Whether it’s the brink of war, environmental collapse, financial mishap, or election integrity. It’s become ingrained in our culture.

If you zoom out, things might look pretty bad. And it’s okay to be aware of it because you have to be aware of it to help effect change. But it’s just as important that you take time to zoom in. It’s when you zoom in that you see pockets of joy.

When you zoom in you see the loving relationship you’ve built with your partner.

When you zoom in you can still smell their shampoo, the way it feels to hold their hand, and the laughter you share. It’s the same detail you get when you zoom in on spending time with your children, pets, family, or friends.

Zoom in on your weekend trips with friends to camp, fish, party, catch a concert or see a sports game. The moments you land the biggest fish or the band plays your favorite song or your favorite player looks in your general direction.

Zoom in on your evenings when you meet friends for drinks and long chats. Where you put the world to rights over a couple of beers and some cheese fries.

Zoom in on your hobbies, favorite days, favorite moments, and the memories you build. The moments where you laugh so hard you lose your breath (or maybe even pee a little).

Those are moments of genuine joy and they’re more frequent than most of us realize because we’re so busy worrying about what’s wrong with the world.

There’s a lot to be grateful for in life and when you seize that gratitude it helps create balance with all the terrible stuff. It isn’t a denial of the bad stuff, it’s a healthy view of life. And if you don’t have that you’ll burn yourself out worrying about everything that’s going wrong. The more stressed you are, the less sleep you get, and the cycle continues.

One of the biggest issues with doomsday rhetoric is the need to lay blame — when everything is going wrong, we find a source to blame and that leads to more stress and anger. It’s a lot to deal with, it’s a lot to have weighing on your shoulders on a daily basis.

No wonder so many people are stressed out of their skulls and struggling with mental health issues. We’ve built a society that revolves around consuming the worst possible news every second of every day. And if you tap out for even a moment, you may feel judged.

To overcome doomsday rhetoric, you need to first understand where it comes from. You might think some people are more anxious than others, and while that’s true, it isn’t the problem here. Doomsday rhetoric helps us make sense of a place and the time we’re in, it’s a way to paint ourselves into history’s grand narrative.

It provides us with a structure — every period in history had an end, just the way it had a beginning. And when you’re in the middle of a crisis, it’s normal to look for meaning. We reflect on history, make comparisons, and see impending doom around every corner. It’s human to look for reasons and find explanations for the way things unfold. There’s power in doomsday rhetoric and by buying into all of it, you give your power away.

And that power can be misused. It’s misused by those in power, who use those feelings of anxiety to push you into various actions, from donating your money to their specific cause or urging you to vote a certain way.

Falling into the trap of doomsday rhetoric gives others undue power and influence over your behavior. And it also has undue influence over your state of mind. The more you fall into the trap, the deeper you slip into stress. When you feel like you can’t control anything, it becomes difficult to cope with everyday life.

You might not realize you’ve been sucked into doomsday rhetoric — you may dismiss this and tell me I’m being hyperbolic because it’s not rhetoric it’s reality. There’s reality and there’s plunging yourself into misery over the things you can’t control.

As out of control as life may often feel, know that there are plenty of things you do control. And the things you can control, those little things you can zoom in on, are the things you should put your time, energy, and focus into. The rest is just noise and it’s going to drag you down.

Getting Out of the Habit

So, how do you escape the doomsday rhetoric? What do you do to get away from the chaos and enjoy your spots of sunshine? Whether it’s watching your favorite show, playing a musical instrument, writing poetry, or sunbathing at the beach, it’s valid. It’s difficult to escape the rhetoric if you constantly surround yourself with it. So, if you want to give it up, you have to put some space between you and it.

And don’t let anyone make you feel guilty about finding joy in the next Stranger Things drop, the fact that Emily in Paris was renewed for another two seasons, or your team won another game. You matter, which means the things you find joy in also matter. Self-care is all the rage, but the people talking about it are just as quick to jump on the doomsday rhetoric as anyone else is.

You can log off the internet, turn off the news, and enjoy life. You can take joy where you can find it, and it’s the only way to escape the doomsday rhetoric and find peace.

Rather than falling for it hook, line, and sinker every time, it’s time to start asking tough questions. If something is broken, what are we doing to fix it? Demand a solution from the person peddling the rhetoric.

The last thing the world needs is doomsday rhetoric to tear us apart. What we truly need is solutions that bring us together. And you can create a solution on your own by being savvier about what rhetoric you give your attention to.

What are you going to do to change things up?

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