Dangerous Advice

 "Starting from zero can be a gift.

If you don't have much to begin with, you don't have much to lose.

You can be bold when you aren't trying to protect something."  James Clear's weekly 3-2-1 column, June 24, 2021

To be fair, I admire what Mr. Clear transmits from his mind to public awareness.  I read his Atomic Habits, benefiting from the advice in several tangible if not entirely measurable ways.  As a result I subscribe to his 3-2-1 weekly email where he offers three personal statements intended for some combination of motivation and introspection, two insights from others with similar intent, and a question he poses to take away our excuses for slouching where we already find ourselves.

Yet this week's guidance can have some very ugly outcomes when implemented that we see in our daily news reports.  Having something to lose, whether your skin tone entitlements, attacks on your church loyalty, invasion by other who take more than the share you are willing to offer, creates a means not to make the world more just.  But starting from nothing and moving in the quest of something seems to be where the boldness arises to trash a store window to get me that flat screen tv that you want but don't have as a reward for expressing more justifiable outrage.  You can violate a capitol building on that basis if the winning candidate brings you back to ground zero in your own mind.

I think the Rebbe took a better approach to the same situation.  His advice invariably started with some type of statement that the situation you implore him to correct has its elements of being a Gift from God.  It can motivate you to assert yourself, try harder, maybe abandon what you seek in favor of something better, to create an alliance of either those in similar circumstances or those who could change circumstances.  Some advice to his petitioners offered inward focus, but more offered outward focus, changing the world with the talent and tenacity that really are Gifts from God, but in a way that enhances the world.  Boldness has its place, but not at a price of causing harm.