If only words were magic. Well, they are. They give shape to the world, hope to the hopeless, comfort to the troubled — or the reverse. Maladroitly or maliciously deployed, words can do great damage. A new “mook” (part magazine, part book) by psychological counselor Shinrai Oshima bears the title, “Magic words to make life go well.”
The word “coronavirus” is conspicuously absent. That’s a magic word in its own right, so magically ubiquitous its absence leaves a magical void, more likely to remind us of the elephant in the room than distract us from it. Perhaps the point is: Anxiety predates the epidemic and will survive it. What’s the magic cure? Words.
Coronavirus aside, there is much to be anxious about — big things and small; global, national, local and personal. Is climate change out of control? Is democracy mortally wounded? Does information technology inform us, or strip our intellectual gears? What about artificial intelligence — is it ally or nemesis, an agent of human growth or a monster rendering humanity obsolete?