WHEN EVEN RIGHT IS WRONG
Can we do anything right?
That is not supposed to be a question that you scream rather than ask, but a neutral and serious question: can we still do anything right nowadays?
Sounds a little abstract, I get it. Let me make it a little more tangible with some examples.
Not too long ago a German presenter duo à la Ant & Dec competed against their TV channel ProSieben in a little game. The prize: 15 minutes airtime in which they can do whatever they want. Joko & Klaas decided to present an exhibition called "Männerwelten" ("Men's Worlds" with English subtitles); or rather have it presented by author and journalist Sophie Passmann.
She took the viewer to various rooms and presented what women still experience every single day: from sexist comments under Instagram posts via unrequested dick pics to an exhibition of the clothes they were wearing when they were raped. A shock for many men. Reality for many women. During the best airtime Joko & Klaas put a problem in the spotlight affecting not half of the population, but everyone. They have reached millions of people and hopefully waken up a lot of them. They did something good, something right! And faced criticism straight away.
A few years ago they filmed themselves during an erotic trade fair being the kind of men they now pilloried. For the exhibition they collaborated with Terre de Femmes, a women's rights organisation that has been criticised for discriminating against transgenders. They focused on women only leaving out other people facing discrimination and harassment day by day. Valid points. All of them. And these problems should be made aware of to the same extent. But: they only had 15 minutes and they decided to put the exhibition's focus on women. This fact does not turn the whole thing into something wrong. After a short "Thanks" of the viewers, the focus was on what they did wrong. Not even the right thing was right enough.
The same goes for Corona: no matter what governments do, they simply cannot do it right (taking Germany as an example). There will always be someone who is pissed about the decisions. The politicians do not implement these measures because it is so much fun.
They want to protect us and in doing so trust science, which btw cannot do anything right either. This virus has been here for a few months only and the fact that some research results are outdated after a few days is nothing uncommon. Especially when we have a look at the extent of research and the speed of how it is conducted.
Instead of threatening scientists and politicians and protesting against the measueres they implement, we could also just say "thank you" for a change. Thank you to the government for putting the population's health first. Thank you to all the scientists researching day and night to end this crisis as soon as possible for us. Thank you for keep going in spite of all the criticism and disrespect they are currently experiencing. I would have thrown the towel a long time ago.
Also in our everyday life we don't know what is right enough anymore. Avoiding plastic: right. Eating avocados: wrong. Going by bike: right. Takine a plane: wrong. As soon as we have another "wrong" on our list, we feel bad. But how many "rights" do we need to be able to say that we really do the right thing? Is it even possible in our globalised world to still do 100% the right thing? A saying goes: You have to die one death. I think this is quite fitting nowadays. Even if not everything we do is right, the good things still are. Maybe we should concentrate on that a little more and stop putting too much pressure on ourselves and others to do the right thing all the time. Because even the smallest right thing can make a change.
