It’s Thanksgiving week here in the United States, and the timing couldn’t be worse. Given the events of the past year—and especially the past seven weeks—it’s easier to find reasons to be angry or anxious than to give thanks. The war in Ukraine continues unabated, and the prospects for a Ukrainian victory are fading. Even the Wall Street Journal seems chastened by recent developments there. The Middle East has erupted yet again, and thousands of innocent civilians have lost their lives. Armenians are fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh, Sudan is trapped in a brutal civil war, and millions of people have been displaced by violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We are nearing the end of the hottest year on record, catastrophic climate events are becoming more frequent, and the planet is certain to become even warmer and wetter and more perilous in the years ahead. The United States is on track for one of the ugliest political campaigns in modern memory, with its future as a genuine democracy at stake.
It’s Thanksgiving week here in the United States, and the timing couldn’t be worse. Given the events of the past year—and especially the past seven weeks—it’s easier to find reasons to be angry or anxious than to give thanks. The war in Ukraine continues unabated, and the prospects for a Ukrainian victory are fading. Even the Wall Street Journal seems chastened by recent developments there. The Middle East has erupted yet again, and thousands of innocent civilians have lost their lives. Armenians are fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh, Sudan is trapped in a brutal civil war, and millions of people have been displaced by violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We are nearing the end of the hottest year on record, catastrophic climate events are becoming more frequent, and the planet is certain to become even warmer and wetter and more perilous in the years ahead. The United States is on track for one of the ugliest political campaigns in modern memory, with its future as a genuine democracy at stake.
Given all this and more, Americans might be forgiven if they deep-sixed the turkey, ordered some takeout, cracked open a whiskey bottle, and skipped the whole business of giving thanks.
I’m going to resist that impulse, however, and spend the day feeling grateful for the gleams of light that still penetrate the gloom. Here are five reasons why you might do so too.
It’s easy to lose sight of this feature of world politics given the violence and insecurity that fills the news feed every day, but we should still be grateful that the world’s major powers are not fighting each other directly. I say this not because the United States, Russia, China, and other major powers are more important than the rest of the world’s nations, but because an all-out great power conflict would produce even greater human suffering than conflicts between weaker states. Apart from the ominous risks of a nuclear exchange, a direct clash of arms between large industrial states would be extraordinarily destructive. The fighting in Ukraine has given us a vivid reminder of what protracted industrial warfare is like, but that admittedly brutal conflict is a far cry from what would happen if other well-armed great powers got directly involved. The last time something like that happened, tens of millions of people died. A war between great powers would also have vast economic consequences and adversely affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world.
For these reasons, every year that passes without a great power conflict is something to be celebrated. I’m thankful for that, and for the efforts that U.S. and Chinese officials are now making to lower the temperature between the world’s two strongest countries. I wish I had more confidence that their efforts will succeed, but on Thanksgiving I’ll be grateful that they are making an effort.
Thanksgiving in November is an American holiday (though Canada beat us to it last month) and every American ought to spend part of that day reflecting on their extraordinary geopolitical good fortune. The United States has long been the only great power in the Western Hemisphere, and we are blessed with friendly and tolerant neighbors to the north and south. As French Ambassador Jean Jules Jusserand remarked many years ago, “America is the most favored of all the nations. To the north, she has a weak neighbor. To the south, another weak neighbor. To the east, fish. To the west, fish.” The country may be deeply polarized: It has a serious problem with gun violence, and there’s also a former president who is openly threatening to overturn its democratic order if he is reelected. But unlike many less fortunate nations, the United States is not being ravaged by war, faces no threat of a foreign invasion, and is still among the world’s wealthiest societies. Pandemic-era inflation has been tamed and the U.S. economy is outperforming the rest of the industrial world. Heck, it even grew faster than China this past year. On Thursday, take a pause from doom-scrolling and give thanks for all of that. Americans are still among the luckiest people on the planet, and that good fortune calls for gratitude rather than gloating.
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In a world where conflict and hardship continue, I give thanks for the thousands of people who get up every day to ease burdens, relieve suffering, bridge divides, and transcend divisions. I’m talking about groups like Medecins san Frontieres, the International Rescue Committee, the International Crisis Group, and many, many more. With Western attention riveted on Gaza, I am grateful for all the people who are refusing to be swept up in the desire for vengeance, who recognize the common humanity of all the people in Gaza, Israel, and the West Bank, and who are still striving for a just peace for in the face of enormous obstacles. I’m talking about people like Daniel Levy, Amr Hamzawy, Gershom Baskin, Noy Katzman, the late Vivien Silver (who tragically lost her life in the Hamas attack) or Omar Shaban, and groups like Breaking the Silence or Standing Together. I give thanks for all the people who have taken to the streets to peacefully express their views, and who have condemned the crimes that both sides have committed in clear and unequivocal terms.
Humanitarians and peacemakers don’t get rich, and they often face ostracism and even persecution. They rarely rise to positions of power and prominence within governments, where tough-minded hawkishness is more commonly prized, which may explain why powerful states tend to eschew empathetic diplomacy in favor of coercion and confrontation. Even so, we should be grateful to all the men and women who labor on behalf of all peoples and who put moral principle ahead of professional advancement. Here I’d include someone like Josh Paul, who resigned from his position in the State Department over expedited U.S. arms transfers to Israel, or the hundreds of government officials who have protested in public, signed open letters, or written in the official dissent channels to express their concerns about U.S. policy. One doesn’t have to agree with everything they said to admire their courage and moral commitment.
And while I’m on the subject, I’m giving thanks that none of the outside parties in the Middle East seem inclined to expand the conflict beyond Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. Israeli settlers have stepped up violence against Palestinians in the occupied territories since Oct. 7, and the Houthis in Yemen have fired some missiles at Israel (fortunately without effect), but thus far neither Hezbollah nor Iran seem eager to get involved. At least not so far. The Biden administration hasn’t done anything of note to stop the war, but it has tried to keep it from growing. A regional war in the would cause even greater loss of life, so we ought to be grateful that this hasn’t occurred. Because the risk of expansion increases the longer the fighting lasts, I hope the chorus of voices now calling for a ceasefire get heard.
In a grim year, I’ll be giving thanks for those moments when good judgment prevailed over scare-mongering, intolerance, or lingering suspicion. The defeat of the Law and Justice Party in the Polish elections was a positive step toward preserving democracy in Poland and aided the broader cause of European unity. “Illiberal democracy” remains a virulent strain in contemporary world politics (see under: Slovakia, Argentina, Hungary, the MAGA movement in the United States, etc.), so I’m thankful every time sensible voters reject these steps backward. Reproductive freedoms continue to expand world-wide (the post-Dobbs United States is a troubling exception here), strengthening the long and still-unfinished march toward gender equality. The Republic of Korea and Japan have taken new steps toward reconciliation, even if the main motivation for this development was their mutual fear of China. There’s reason to be grateful for these developments too.
Finally, I remain grateful to live in a society where freedom of expression is protected and to work in a profession where this principle remains a core value. To be sure, academic freedom is under siege at some universities, and legitimate political disagreements all too often devolve into ad hominem smearing, doxxing, cancel culture, and the like. As I noted a few weeks ago, universities need to do a better job of defending their core mission—which is the free and open pursuit of knowledge—and resist pressure to take a collective stand on major social and political issues. Yet despite the growing threats to academic freedom, my colleagues and I are still able to think and write as we wish. Each of you is free to read those thoughts if you care to, ignore them if that is what you prefer, and to either agree or disagree with them openly. These freedoms are essential elements of an open society and our best protection against intolerance, political stagnation, and tyranny.
Although I’m mindful of the growing threats to free expression in the United States and elsewhere, they have yet to carry the day. I’m grateful for that, and to all of you who think that reading this column is worth your time. Happy Thanksgiving!
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