Holding sway: Alaska News Brief July 2024
I keep asking myself, how do you quiet the mind when witnessing and experiencing chaos? How do you engage inside the havoc of nonstop disinformation, technology-enabled deep fakes, divisive politics, and now the overturning of established legal interpretations and the rule of law itself?
How do you cling tightly to your values and ensure knee-jerk reactions don’t hold sway?
I won’t dive into the nitty gritty of recent Supreme Court decisions, but I know they will have a profound impact on the work Trustees does and that of lawyers everywhere, and indeed (and eventually) on the lives of everyone in the United States and beyond. 
Rulings that erode individual rights and deregulate industry will inevitably cause deep harm to people and the planet while rolling us back historically to the beginning of the industrial revolution.
Sure, we hear the legal theories behind every disruptive decision, the agenda behind divisive political fearmongering, and the speculation behind every pundit vying for attention, but the immediate result of powerful institutions systematically “shaking up the system” is chaos and uncertainty for most of us.
Turns out that chaos and uncertainty is the goal and purpose of disinformation, too. Chaos and uncertainty can make people feel helpless, apathetic, fearful, and overwhelmed, until they jump on a bandwagon or opt out entirely. It can compel them to put their head in the sand or accept the unacceptable.
So, again I ask myself, how do you quiet the mind and center the heart during times of chaos and uncertainty?
I think for starters we must all do our best to avoid falling into the “us vs. them” worldview. Decisions are not black and white, but shades of gray. We need to let our skeptical selves respond when we see the red flags of conspiracy and putting groups of people down. We need to ask more questions and listen more. Of all of the learnings of my life, the one thing I do most these days is “Question Authority and Question Those Who Question Authority.” In my view, reacting without full knowledge is the first step to losing personal agency.
The conspiracy we should worry about is the one we’re living—the one that profits from “us vs. them” thinking and labelling people to dehumanize them.
Instead, we need to step back and think about the real threats to our personal rights, friends and family, and communities. I worry about the Supreme Court’s unraveling of the Constitution, for example, because it’s a power grab that gives courts more authority over everything, concentrates “power over” rather than “power with”, and likely means the diminishing of individual rights and protections from industrial harm.
It also seems to me that during a period of great chaos and uncertainty, we must emphasize care and thoughtfulness, generosity and curiosity, open-heartedness and healthy skepticism. They are an antidote to chaos and uncertainty, and the foundation we need to make good decisions. When someone wants your vote, your money, your “heart and mind,” they have a purpose, and we must all take care in deciding if that purpose aligns with what really matters to us.
Hands holding fresh picked blueberries in Lake Clark. Photo by B. King NPS
Each of us right now must ask ourselves, “what should hold sway for me?” and center that regardless of the mayhem. What I want to hold sway for me is caretaking.
Now I have an answer when I ask myself, how do I calm my mind in a time of turmoil? I take care of myself, I take care of others, I take care of Earth, I take care to discern facts from disinformation and lies, I take care of how I listen and speak when emotions run high, I take care of how I make decisions, I take care to put front and center future possibilities and generations.
This work is hard and tiring and unending, but I believe we value all the more the things we have to work for—and for Trustees, this is how we work to overcome the conservation threats facing Alaska. I hope you will join us.
PS. Thanks to supporters like you, we can continue fighting to protect Alaska’s land, water, air, wildlife and people.
Talkeetna Mountains, BLM lands. Photo by Fredrik Norsell
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Brown Bears in Lake Clark NP&P, Photo by Madison Grosvenor
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