I have a pet theory:

Books & hugs will save the world.

By “books”, I mean what we read, never mind the format (visual, audio, whatever). By “hugs”, I mean good relationships, never mind the degree of physical proximity. Reading & relationships. Books & hugs.

Why?

Because books spread ideas, and hugs spread love. Ideas and love, combined, are the fuel for not just changing the world but for making it better.

(I can smell the skepticism from here. =P)

But what about all the bad books and bad people?!

Well, I would say it’s too simple to decry anything — books, people, whatever — as being bad without first defining what “bad” is. What makes a book a “bad book”? What makes a person a “bad person”?

And those are questions that are much too broad and deep to answer in a blog post. After all, how much have human beings wrote on the topic of “badness” (more commonly called evil — and its opposite: good) in all of history? A lot. (And that’s just in writing, never mind all the other forms with which humanity has used, continues to use, and will use to wrestle with the topic.) And we still don’t have a complete consensus. So there’s not much hope for me to give an answer to the question of “what is the definition of bad?” in the space of one short blog post.

Now I know it sounds like I’m just avoiding the question (by pulling that trick where you replace the question someone asks you with your own question and then answer — or, in this case, not answer — that question), but I’m not. =P (Just bear with me for a sec here.)

In pausing to inquire about the definition of bad, I am doing my best to show that we need to have a clear understanding on what the question is asking — by defining its terms — before we can have any real hope of answering it. That’s true of any question. Clarity is required before we can engage — at least, with any kind of honesty — with a topic, especially if that topic is complex. After all, in this case, the word bad is simple, but what it means is quite complex.

But, yes, sometimes a question can be left unanswered via a rabbit hole discussion of what the question itself is. And sometimes that’s done deliberately. (You know, that whole avoiding-the-question thing I am not doing right now. . . . XD)

So now (having done my due diligence in pointing out the sloppiness of asking a question without first ensuring that all parties are square on the terms =P) let me try to answer what the question is actually asking (even if it is asking it poorly, in my opinion XP) . . .

. . . which is, in essence, an expression of fear:

What about books and people that could be dangerous?†

To which my answer is . . .

Add more books & hugs.

Yup, you heard me. I said, MOAR.

We should read more books about more ideas and give & receive more hugs with more people. More and more and more — so many more that we have more good ideas than bad ideas (because the good ideas — the ones that will help more than harm — will eventually out-compete the bad ones) and so that we develop relationships with more people both to buffer the consequences of actions taken by bad actors‡ (there’s safety in numbers) and to make it less likely that others will harm us in the first place (friends are generally less likely to be dangerous to us than enemies and — possibly — strangers).

In short:

More books with ideas about and from and helping more people.

More hugs creating and strengthening our connections to and with more people.

More books and more hugs in more ways and in more circumstances . . .

. . . so that, eventually, the entire world becomes our people.

This is how books & hugs will save the world.

†Yes, dear reader, perceptive as you are, you have no doubt noticed that I am totes sneaking in a definition of “bad” here — but, like I have just said, I have to clarify a question before I can answer it!

‡To be clear, I’m not advocating that we ignore the actions of bad actors. Of course not. We should always hold people accountable for their misbehaviour to the appropriate degree. Accountability (and all that it entails — for it, too, is a complex topic XD), however, is beyond the scope of this short blog post. (Well, I’m trying to keep it short. ‘^^)