Does the state of the world upset you? It is a crazy time to be alive right now. From global warming and mass starvation to interstate wars and the democratic backsliding of the U.S., everything seems to cause distress. Is there hope for a better future?
Earlier this semester, I sat down at the Marketplace to have dinner with a friend who is graduating this year. We caught up on each other’s lives. I was busy applying for summer opportunities, and she was busy applying to graduate schools. The wait was nerve-wracking for both of us. To cope, she played Minecraft after dinner for a few hours, an activity that brought her joy. It reminded me of the joy that I felt when I played Minecraft in middle school.
In real life, the state of the world often frustrates me. After I became a Diplomacy & World Affairs major, I started to feel like a global citizen who had a stake in shaping the future. However, such awareness came with a cost, which started to become apparent when I first learned about critical race theory in international relations. Errol Henderson, author of the research paper “Hidden in plain sight: racism in international relations theory,” argues that the primary theories used to explain states’ behavior were built upon racism. While this argument was not necessarily the full truth or sole explanation of how the world works, it was convincing enough to unleash my skepticism of the fundamentals of the things around me.
Henderson’s words led me to start questioning the system that we have now: Why do we do the things we do? What is the purpose of living? If the system that we live in is socially constructed, can we create another system that makes society a better place? Are the ongoing societal problems we face created on purpose? For instance, we devote so much of our lifetimes to school and work. Many jobs were created to solve ongoing societal issues. If these issues were to be eradicated, what would happen to those jobs? What would people spend time on if there were no more problems to solve?
The vast questions about the world felt distant when I played Minecraft as a child. When I first started playing, I was so bewildered: I was thrown into an empty place alone. There were mountains, rivers, trees, minerals and an overall tranquility to the environment. I needed to cut down trees for wood planks and kill sheep for wool to make a bed. It was necessary to go to bed; otherwise, I would have to face life-threatening monstrous creatures. During the daytime, I built my settlement. At the beginning of the game, my sole purpose was to survive, but later on, I expanded my house, grew crops and herded animals. And for some reason, I discovered more human lives to be in this place with me.
In real life, there are many things to do beyond survival such as learning, turning hobbies into sophisticated endeavors, traveling to explore the world and being kind to each other. However, like facing the monsters in Minecraft, in life, we also need to build resilience to overcome any challenges that come our way. There are many global issues that can make us fall into an existential crisis because it is upsetting that we can’t do anything about them.
The system I live in isn’t perfect, but I have to remind myself that we have come so far. How many thousands of years did it take humanity to achieve what we have now? And how many more years will it take to solve the world’s issues?
The fractures that societies currently contain are the byproduct of untreated past trauma. The world needs constant healing, and it’s never too late to start. It starts with me. It starts with you. Even constantly changing ourselves to be better people will make the world a better place. The incremental change is small, but powerful if each person realizes how much power they have in shaping this world.
Contact Villathina Ly at lyv@oxy.edu
