Vetspective: Is it the End of the World as We Know It?

“It’s the end of the world as we know it…and I feel fine…”

This is how Michael Stipe, the lead singer of REM, in a deadpan style and something of a call-and-response pattern frames his knotty, raggle-taggle stream of consciousness about the state of the world in REM’s popular 1987 song, “It’s the end of the world as we know it.”

These days, this song too often seems to play in the back of my mind as I intellectually and emotionally navigate our complex, 21st century world.

Russia invading Ukraine: “It’s the end of the world as we know it.”

COVID and Omicron: It’s the end of the world as we know it?”

My New York Giants: “It’s the end of the world as we know it!”

This state of mind and the associated events have become part of the soundtrack of our lives. A soundtrack that has come so hard, so fast, and so seemingly unrelenting that I do sometimes wonder: Is this the end of the world as we know it? But the next thing I always say myself is: “I feel fine…” Why?

We should not underestimate how profoundly the various shocks to our system have affected us – not only at the individual level but also across our country and society. These shocks to our system have come one-after-the-other in rapid succession within a relatively compact and condensed time period of the first two decades of the 21st century.

The shock to the system that started it all was the unprecedented terrorist attack on our country on 9/11. It continued with an unprecedented economic shock with the financial and housing crisis at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. And, without mercy, the shocks became even greater in scope and scale with a once-in-a-century pandemic that has affected everyone on the planet, leading to unprecedented change in how we work, live, learn, interact, and experience life.

These and other security, economic, and social upheavals in just the first two decades of the 21st century have come at a pace and scale that have not only structurally changed our society but also affected our social contract in fundamental ways.

We will never enter an airport and get on a plane the way we did before 9/11. We will never allow large banks and financial institutions to collapse en masse. And we will never work the way we did before the pandemic.

So, why do I feel fine? I will answer with a concern and a hope.

My concern is that I, and others, have become desensitized to these shocks to our system. On the one hand, this is perhaps reflective of a general malaise in society – one that stems from being resigned to a narrative that the forces in our world are so much greater than ourselves and controlled by such larger entities within society that there is nothing one can do but endure. On the other hand, one could argue this is reflective of a resiliency in our society – that we are developing ways to cope with structurally changing events. For me, both the former and the latter do not fully explain what is occurring across society.

I propose another explanation – a third-way that suggests a new frontier in human evolution – a new social contract that is built around both individual ingenuity and local agency and oriented towards larger objectives.

Through the organization that I run, the Common Mission Project, I have discovered a new way for people in society to interact – building a new social contract. This new social contract is not driven purely by individual self-interest but instead the unique value one can bring at a local level to larger, societal level problems.

Today, programs that organizations like the Common Mission Project run bring together individuals from seemingly desperate stakeholder groups – the government, universities, and the private sector – around critical public problems. In this format and forum, the social contract is built around each stakeholder providing unique and specific value towards solving a defined public problem.

Value is the social contract; the problem is its currency. This leaves me with hope.

Indeed, the hope that underpins my “I feel fine” retort to myself comes not from a feeling of helplessness, but, instead, a feeling of helpfulness.

I believe I, and others, can move these seemingly intractable problems in society today – wherever we are at. It requires the hard work of convening the right people around a critical public problem, which matters more than the technology, standing, authority, or power one has (or doesn’t have) in society.

We must no longer look to larger entities in society to solve our problems. We can no longer wait for them because our need is so great.

Achieving agency and solving problems wherever you are at – whether you are rich or poor, powerful or not – is the ultimate freedom. Freedom we all seek.

We each have something unique to contribute to solving the greatest problems of our time. Just find what you can uniquely bring and bring it to someone else, and then to someone else, and then to someone else.

I believe we will build a new social contract through enjoining one-another around common problems and by solving them together wherever we are at in society.

In fact, this is what we did in the military and what we, as Veterans, can uniquely bring to our country and society.

And because of that…“I feel fine.”

For those who don't know me, my name is Alex Gallo and I am the Executive Director of the Common Mission Project and the author of “Vetspective,” a RallyPoint series that discusses national security, foreign policy, politics, and society. I am also an Army Veteran. Follow me on Twitter at @AlexGalloCMP!