World-worrying

From Patrick Kurp at Anecdotal Evidence this morning:

.... Panic is pandemic. Everything is a crisis. Looked at historically, in context, everything is proceeding as usual, but ordinary people, newly armed with social media, have grown extraordinarily fond of melodrama and cheap, unearned emotion. Eighty years ago, Smith had already diagnosed our problem:

“There is a sort of hubris in this world-worrying. For if you have achieved peace in your own mind, when the worst happens (if it does) you will have reserves of strength to meet it. And if you have not achieved peace in your own mind, how can you expect the world to do any better.”

This is realism, not quietism. A man’s got to know his limitations, as a movie star one said.... (more)

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,   the courage to change the things I can,   and the wisdom to know the difference.  Reinhold Niebuhr
Anecdotal Evidence: 'A Sort of Hubris in This World-Worrying'