My new favorite word is meliorism. It’s the belief that the world can be made better by human effort. This is a belief I’ve had all my life and didn’t realize it had a name until recently.
Looking back on progress, we tend to glorify the accomplishments of individuals. And, sure, the world has been made better by plenty of individuals. Of course it has. But this concept of meliorism, this belief in human effort, feels larger to me than any individual. It speaks to the collective, to what we can do together to envision and create a better world. After all, part of what makes me human is a desire to make the world better – for & with & alongside my fellow humans.
Are you in?
