February 16, 2023

Have you ever felt completely helpless, as though you're a bystander in your own life? It can be a difficult situation, and can feel as though there is nothing you could possibly do to correct it. It might be a financial issue, a problem in a relationship, or a work difficulty. People in such situations often suffer from a form of emotional "paralysis." If you're unable to see a way out of the problem, it's far too easy to simply ignore it. Ignoring problems merely makes them worse. There are almost always small, incremental steps which we can take to make things better.

I've seen that pattern repeated, time and again, by countless acquaintances, and even friends and family. There have surely been times when I've been guilty of the same thing myself. Psychologists call this feeling "learned helplessness," where people are "conditioned to believe that a bad situation is unchangeable or inescapable." Such "learned helplessness" becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: If you believe that nothing can be done, you do nothing, and then the worst outcome becomes inevitable.

I raise this because the Munich Security Report 2022 argues that the world, and in particular the Western world, is falling into a large-scale version of this learned helplessness. The COVID-19 pandemic left global healthcare systems powerless. Governments fear climate change, yet no single nation can truly impact the global situation. Add in the instability caused by what Western nations describe as "Russia's war in Ukraine," as well as the corresponding impact on energy prices and the cost of living, and it's easy to see how negative ideas can develop.

Read more:

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-02-16/Security-or-helplessness-The-stark-reality-facing-global-leaders-in-Munich-1htkkU8PSKs/index.html