Abraham Lincoln shared the following words in 1838:

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum Address, 1838

If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.

Interestingly, the Civil War didn't take place until 1861, the same year Lincoln became President. And even though his speech above foreshadowed the Civil War, the words are possibly more relevant today than they were back then.

As individuals and as a culture, you could argue that we've never been as weak or as fragile as we are today.

Article Shortcuts* The Great Aweakening* What Does It Mean To Be "Strong?"* 4 Ways We're Weakening Our Bodies, Minds, and Culture* 1. Competitive Vulnerability* 2. Echo Chambers & Anti-Tribes* 3. Microaggression* 4. Stress Avoidance* Build Strength Or Succumb To Weakness

The Great Aweakening

How have we become so weak in body, mind, and culture? Why is there so much focus on what's bad about life today when things are actually pretty good?

There’s an anonymous saying that goes like this:

Bad times make strong men. Strong men make good times. Good times make weak men. Weak men make bad times.

You might scoff at the idea that things are good, but they actually are. In almost every measure of humanity, from the percentage of the population that's poor, to the rates of crime and disease, life is better today than at any other time in history.

You might feel conflicted about this idea that "things are good."

Perhaps, prior to reading this article, you were just scrolling through your Facebook newsfeed and read how depressed a friend felt about needing to go back to work after vacation, how someone else was struggling to make it through her first day on a diet, and how a co-worker felt slighted for the barista misspelling his name again.

We're surrounded by first-world problems that, in the grand scheme, are quite unimportant. But we stress out and lose sleep over them, nonetheless.

If it's hard for you believe that life for most people is "pretty good," it's probably related to your negativity instinct, a skewed perspective of reality. In his book Factfulness, Hans Rosling explains the negativity instinct as "our instinct to notice the bad more than the good." It is based on "the misremembering of the past; selective reporting...