I am a voracious reader. Every morning, I wake up to the tune of the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times, followed by a political theory or history book. With so many crises in the world, my life has become constant negative reactions to conflict instead of a proactive pursuit of understanding. I feel like Muhammad Ali dodging punches without a beat.
My generation is the post-9/11 generation, the 2008 housing crisis generation and now the COVID generation. No matter your political views, life has become an endless struggle over what to believe in and what to fight for.
My argument isn’t groundbreaking. I won’t be the last to make this argument. I even think it sounds a tad corny. I’m not offering a hot take on the Ukraine-Russia war or trying to solve the immigration debate in the U.S. I am trying to make the point that we urgently need to return to the basics. We need to prioritize either being a creator or a destroyer.
Social media algorithms thrive on echo chambers that lean into people’s extreme beliefs and insecurities. If you are pro-choice, your TikTok will never show religious pro-life content. The press relies on sensationalism — Fox News lied to audiences about 2020 election fraud and was forced to pay out $787 million to Dominion Voting Systems in one of the largest defamation lawsuits ever. Media sensationalism isn’t a left-or-right issue; it is global and spans both sides of the aisle.
These are examples of destroyers, people and companies that shed light on important issues but do so in a polarizing way to gain a profit. Behind their mask of progress and pursuit of knowledge, they breed disunity that only exacerbates the issues they claim to want to address, twisting narratives into an “us vs. them” battle. Destroyers profit from division and increasing conflict.
I’d like to propose a different route. My girlfriend is from Russia. I am from Puerto Rico. Our language, food, family and upbringings are so radically opposite it can feel like we are from different planets sometimes. We are so different, yet we are together and thriving. I see her smile when I bring her flowers, and everything disappears.
This is what it means to be a creator. We don’t bring each other down even if sometimes we have differences. We learn from them. I have enjoyed Russian culture (especially their food), and she has endured my awfully boring lectures on Puerto Rican policy. We have built understanding and empathy, creating a bridge that makes our one-in-a-million connection possible.
Strangers have looked at our relationship through their own lenses and tried to find a reason why we should be apart. Still, that woman is the reason I write and can focus on my studies. Similarly, I gave her a broader view of the world and a listening ear to her concerns.
I am not critiquing civic engagement or curiosity — quite the opposite. I invite you to consider other points of view and not see them as simply the “opposition.” Everyone has a perspective worth understanding. Someone may try to frame an issue as a matter of left or right, but it certainly doesn’t have to be an excuse for tearing down relationships instead of building them.
Being a creator doesn’t need drastic personal change; simply listening to others and being more open to love in everyday life is a step that can lead to growth. Recognize when you are being dragged into the trap of being a destroyer, and try to listen, inspire and create.