There Is Still Good in the World - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
There Is Still Good in the World
by

May the hopelessness of the century we live in not prevent us from considering that there are plenty of things that are right around us.

We have overcome the greatest biological attack in the history of Chinese Communism, in spite of our politicians. Cancer mortality rates are dropping. We can photograph all the beauty that presents itself unexpectedly before our eyes. Cars still don’t fly, there are no chips implanted in our brains at birth, and we still read books on paper. No jumble of wires and plastic has yet been able to match the warmth of a kiss of love. We still have poetry, music, and classical cinema. Social networks have not managed to dynamite all possible types of friendship. We have the best highways in history. Any corner of the world is at our disposal at the click of a button. The great wars with ships full of coffins on their way home are no longer the trend. And there are still religious men and women silently changing bedpans every morning, and giving love in places that have been long forgotten.

READ MORE from Itxu Díaz: I Bear Glad Tidings From Spain

As you read this article, in every corner of the world there are millions of people doing good. There is a father watching over his son’s fever in the wee hours of the morning. There is a girl writing to her boyfriend telling him that she loves him. There is a teacher giving his all to instruct his students. There is a soldier giving a drink to the enemy he has just captured. There’s a boy carrying shopping bags for his elderly neighbor. There’s someone putting everything at risk by telling the truth. There’s a patriot trying to unite his nation. There’s a junkie carrying his backpack across the threshold of a rehab center. There’s a businessman donating expensive equipment to a children’s hospital. And there’s a band recording the album that will give strength to those who need it. 

Somewhere there is now a young man throwing himself into the pool to save a baby. There is a politician trying to preserve tradition. There is a field bursting into beautiful flowers. A pill that will ease the greatest pain. And a farmer who will harvest his best crop.

There’s a courageous woman refusing to have an abortion. There’s a grandfather building a playhouse for his grandchildren to play in. There’s a radiologist confirming that the tumor is gone. There’s a shy man overcoming his stage fright. And there’s a volunteer building a school in a poor country. 

In some distant latitude, there is a programmer inventing something that will make our lives easier. There’s a bunch of cloistered nuns praying for you. There’s a cold-hearted young man crying emotionally. And there’s a misguided man asking for forgiveness.

There’s a beautiful woman giving a good suitor a chance. There’s someone acknowledging a woman in need. There’s a footballer giving away his jersey to rival fans. There’s a child finally coming out of the ICU. There’s a priest confessing a converted thief. And there’s a policeman protecting the target of a shooting with his body. 

 “A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin,” wrote H.L. Mencken, and perhaps it is time to stop turning our heads, at least for a while, in search of the funeral procession. To silence the cynic who rudely comments on everything that happens before our eyes, who warns us about how everything will go wrong, who warns us against friendship, against trusting others, against the chances of changing things with a vote, against the hope of love working out, against the options of succeeding in a personal challenge, against good news; who suggests to us in a low voice, like a vinegary old man, “Something bad is coming.”

In the first 15 years of this century, the number of hungry people in the world fell by more than 100 million, and that number has fallen by more than 200 million since 1990. This is great news. Cooperation? Solidarity? Maybe. But it’s more than likely that development has something to do with it. 

If you misidentify the problem, you will choose the wrong solution. It is the small steps toward development — new opportunities, openness to freedom, international trade, education and training, and the end of tyrannies — that bring prosperity to Third World nations. Not everything is going wrong there. 

I don’t want you to think that I’m rallying for the happy, that I’ve just plugged a joint, or that I’ve given up on the cursing connatural to bohemia and lyrics. Far from it. There are many things going wrong, besides the government, and there are a lot of problems to solve, besides cutting the communist gangrene from administrations and replacing it with freedoms and principles that will make us better. There is too much cult of ugliness, violence is much more palpable in the streets than before the pandemic, there is a hidden plague of psychiatric illnesses, and there is still hunger, suffering, terrorism, hatred, theft, and poverty in the world. And, if that’s not enough — tons of garbage in the forests and oceans, including the metal pillars with which environmentalists and buck-passing experts are replacing trees to supposedly save nature. 

Perhaps we should just take a look around and read G.K. Chesterton more: “The most extraordinary things in the world are an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.” There are still millions like that, millions of reasons not to fall into despair.

You are not alone.

Translated by Joel Dalmau.

Itxu Díaz
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Itxu Díaz is a Spanish journalist, political satirist, and author. He has written 10 books on topics as diverse as politics, music, and smart appliances. He is a contributor to The Daily Beast, The Daily Caller, National Review, American Conservative, and Diario Las Américas in the United States, as well as a columnist at several Spanish magazines and newspapers. He was also an adviser to the Ministry for Education, Culture, and Sports in Spain.
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