Happy New Year! Climbing up into the proverbial crow’s nest as 2024 begins, it looks a bit bleak up ahead. LOTS of icebergs! Of course here in the USA we have the US presidential election, that is sure to bring out an added level of nastiness. We are not alone in this… a colleague of mine points out that in 2024 there will be 106 elections in 67 countries!

Given the current state of generative AI tools, I can only imagine the level of misinformation and disinformation we’ll see this year. And so many “deepfake” videos, I’m sure. All of which will lead to more polarization, and a decrease in trust in information – and calls from policymakers to impose restrictions on the Internet.

Beyond politics… it’s January 1 in Vermont and we have green grass, above-freezing temperatures and … no snow! This is not normal. We’re just coming off the hottest year globally in recorded history – and some signs that this year could be even hotter. There certainly seem to be climate challenges ahead. (There may be fewer actual ice bergs to see!)

There are housing issues… and a pandemic that is not gone… and issues of inequality and inequity… and serious substance abuse and mental health issues… and… and… and… there are SO MANY CHALLENGES.

BUT… that’s only part of the story. It’s the part that brings in eyeballs to media sites.

We definitely DO have VERY serious challenges… but off in the corners where the media doesn’t pay attention, there are many people working on solutions.

If you have not read this 2021 essay, please STOP READING this post and go take a few minutes to read it – and… pay attention to how you feel as you read the article: Collapse, Renewal and the Rope of History.

Did you find yourself despairing a bit as you began the post? Or getting anxious?

Take another moment to read this: 66 Good News Stories You Didn’t Hear About in 2023.

And then think about – why don’t we hear more about these stories?

The story we tell ourselves about the world around us matters.

There’s one story of “WE ARE ALL DOOMED! WE’RE GOING TO DIE!”. And there’s another story of “Things are bad – and they’ll get worse if we don’t do something about it!”

There is a story about doom and collapse… and a story about hope and renewal… and many stories in between.

To me, I believe that “hope” is about *action*. And that is the story we need to be telling ourselves… and sharing out into the wider world.

A few years ago I wrote a tweet (later shared on Mastodon) of:

The challenge that lies before us is more than choosing hope over fear.
It is choosing hope amidst the overwhelming narratives of fear and doom.
It is choosing hope and optimism despite those fears.
It is choosing hope as a daily, gritty act of resistance and resilience.

I stand by that today.

“Hope begins with the ability to imagine alternatives. And there is always an alternative.” – stated author Cory Doctorow in an excellent graduation address to York University last year.

As we begin this year of 2024, with so much potential darkness ahead of us, that is our calling… to find hope amidst the chaos, and share that hope with the wider world.

Happy New Year! May 2024 be a good one for us all!

---

Thanks for reading to the end. I welcome any comments and feedback you may have.

Please drop me a note in email – if you are a subscriber, you should just be able to reply back. And if you aren’t a subscriber, just hit this button 👇 and you’ll get future messages.

This IS also a WordPress hosted blog, so you can visit the main site and add a comment to this post, like we used to do back in glory days of blogging.

Or if you don’t want to do email, send me a message on one of the various social media services where I’ve posted this. (My preference continues to be Mastodon, but I do go on others from time to time.)

Until the next time,
Dan

---

Connect

---

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: This newsletter is a personal project I’ve been doing since 2007 or 2008, several years before I joined the Internet Society in 2011. While I may at times mention information or activities from the Internet Society, all viewpoints are my personal opinion and do not represent any formal positions or views of the Internet Society. This is just me, saying some of the things on my mind.