No Before Times to Be Had: Part Ten
We are now at weltanschauung. It is the last of the three areas to attend to for being able to pivot on a pretty constant basis: working on mental and emotional issues, rest and evaluating your weltanschauung.
Most of us alive today have really only known a society that believed itself to be on a permanent trajectory of progress and ever-increasing levels of wellbeing and success. Those who have lived through wars across the globe likely have a better sense of what happens to communities under stress, but many of us have not been near those things.
Fred Rogers, of the children’s show Mr. Rogers , was born in 1928 to a family of successful businessmen. His mother had wished to be a doctor but settled for volunteer work in the hospital. By now, few have not heard of this particular recollection of his:
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers—so many caring people in this world.”
Ian Bogost, who wrote The Fetishization of Mr. Rogers’s ‘Look for the Helpers’ in The Atlantic, points out that this now common meme in times of disaster was never meant for adults; it was meant for children. However, Fred Rogers himself confirmed that the concept continued to give him comfort as an adult.
Yet it should also be noted that as an adult Fred Rogers was not just looking for helpers, he joined them. He was a helper, as was his mother before him. I will circle back to this a bit later in this installment.
Weltanschauung is worldview or your vision of the world. Weltanschauung was originally defined as follows: you experience the world through interpretation and your interpretations are historically and culturally conditioned. Weltanschaung was then very much subsumed by the psychoanalysis movers and shakers of the late 1800s and early 1900s all of whom had different angles on trying to create a worldview that was rational and objective.
Of course, we know there is no ultimate rational and objective worldview. By definition “view” confirms that there is a subjective “viewer” and by extension there are as many views of the world as there are sentient creatures viewing it.
As humans, we tend to cluster with groups who share our worldview. Usually we have never really given much thought to our worldview and how it was shaped by our history and culture. We simply view the world as we have been taught.
Many people with chronic illnesses are very sad right now and struggling to cope. It comes as a profound shock that eugenics is a dominant worldview. Even more deflating is the realization that disabled, elderly, frail and generally unwell humans have not been valued long before the pandemic showed up.
On top of all of this, those with chronic illness understand to a level few experts even comprehend (although mercifully some do) that SARS-CoV2 is a system-level pathogen with significant long-term complications that are far more akin to how HIV or polio interact with the human body and its immune system. Watching a mass disabling event unfold in real time is disturbing.
Adjusting your weltanschauung means that you may have to critique and then summarily dump a worldview that made you accept the following types of concepts: those who eat right and exercise are morally superior; only those who help themselves are worthy of being helped; and your worth is exclusively based on your ability to contribute to the creation of capital for the wealthy.
In disabled communities this worldview is identified as “internalized ableism.” Essentially, there is so much guilt and shame that rushes in for someone newly disabled or chronically ill in that they can no longer function in ways that they have always identified as morally superior and validating for their existence. I think it is broader than our sense that we are obligated to be abled; it is an internalized belief system that translates human value to units of productivity.
That basic question, “So what do you do?” always assumes an answer predicated on work, a job. There are many who look to have the efforts of raising children and keeping the home recognized as equivalent to having a fulltime job (or several jobs at once). Sadly, that is perhaps the wrong direction to go as it reinforces that the pinnacle of a valuable way to spend your time in our society is to be employed.
The pinnacle of existence is to exist. How you may find value in that is for you to define.
And at this point we come back to Fred Rogers. It is okay to look for the Helpers as an adult as much as it is for a child. If (and this is an “if”) you believe that joining the Helpers in some way makes sense for how you might find value in your existence, then do so. Helping does not have to be big energy depleting efforts. I note there are very big helping communities on social media for those newly diagnosed for just about any condition you care to name.
But whether you join the Helpers or not, because it may not be your calling, make sure to support them. They will be the ones in our society who will keep us from completely splintering apart into some bleak dystopia. Have their backs. Uplift their messages.
You will also need to get good at distinguishing a Helper from a Concern Troll to protect yourself and others. Both can be indignantly angry. Both can express deep concern and care for others. Both can be very action and solution-oriented.
It can take a while to uncover the difference: helpers believe that others are helpable and concern trolls believe that others (and often self too) are helpless.
Concern trolls believe that others are dupes, or incapable, or unable and this framing takes away the agency and ability of those others. And yes, they exist on both sides of any topic you could care to name these days.
Either being or falling prey to a Concern Troll is a disabling experience. It is an unfortunate too-far swing of the pendulum from the internalized ability to internalized disability. Having a disability does not make you helpless; it makes you helpable.
I am not sure what I will write about next…feel free to suggest something through the social media links:
