The Power of Gratitude
As our youth are indoctrinated in expecting entitlements, they are bereaved of the immense power that comes from gratitude.
“Gratitude is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
Voltaire
When the plane landed on that ice-cold December night, two days before Christmas, my then six-year-old sister started complaining about pain in her sides. As the Swedish border police were asking this family of four children and single mother about our journey and plans, my sister’s cries became louder and more uncontrollable. It was apparent that this was something serious, and our new hosts immediately arranged for an ambulance to take her and my mother to the hospital for an appendectomy, while the rest of us were taken to a refugee camp, where we were offered food and toys, all under the supervision of a Farsi speaking guardian.
The next day, my mother returned to find us well-fed, rested and looked after, while my little sister was treated in a state-of-the-art hospital, cared for with a quality we could not have dreamt of in our homeland of Iran. All of this in the span of less than 24 hours of our arrival in this foreign land. The morning after, with my little sister back, we got a knock on the door and were greeted with our first ever encounter with Santa Clause, who gave all of us gifts and hugs.
A year later, my father and older brother having joined us, we were granted Swedish citizenship and were now, in the eyes of the law, autonomous residents of our host nation, with all the privileges and responsibilities that entailed.
We arrived in Sweden with not much more than the clothes on our backs, and our parents’ determination to give us a better life than we could have had in our country of birth. We were given free education, access to healthcare, participation in the political processes and every opportunity to make something of ourselves - and we did. Today, the four children who came to Sweden on that bitterly cold December night are, in order: an engineer, a consultant, a councillor and a scientist. We’ve travelled to every corner of the world, built our own homes and most of us now have our own children, brought up in the societies which offered their parents boundless opportunities and privileges.
My whole family on the day we received our Swedish citizenship
My family’s story is not unique among immigrants. Study after study show how many of the most successful demographics in any Western country are immigrants from Iran, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, India, China, Sri Lanka and more. People coming from abject backgrounds, suffering political persecutions, wars and wretched poverty, starting from the bottom and, within one to two generations, becoming some of the most prosperous people in their new homelands. How is such a metamorphosis possible?
I think it has much to do with the power of gratitude. While our youth are being indoctrinated into thinking that they are living in the most immoral societies on earth and in history, those of us who have experienced national / cultural oppression, treasure the unfathomable abundances offered to us in The West. We have seen the alternatives, and know how rare and invaluable the freedoms others take for granted are.
In her extraordinary autobiography “Heretic”, the indomitable Ayaan Hirsi Ali describes having escaped to The Netherlands from Somalia, and her astonishment at seeing buses arriving at the time stated on the tables. Many of us immigrants can relate to the wonderment of such a phenomenon, which many readers will find trivial.
The same Hirsi Ali once appeared on the Canadian program “On The Map”, where the liberal host Ari Lewis smugly and facetiously insinuated that Ayaan had been brainwashed into believing the myth of the American dream, and was only parroting its slogans to obtain citizenship. Ayaan informed her pompous interlocutor that, having never lived without freedom, he has the luxury of spitting on it, whereas she, having lived in societies without such principles, can’t - won’t - take such privileges for granted. (Watch the full interview here)
As immigrants, we understand the rarity in what most natural born citizens in Western countries take for granted, and we are endlessly and unapologetically grateful for such riches. And that’s where our power comes from; our wish to repay our adopted homelands for the luxurious lives awarded us. This power becomes our fuel which drives so many of us to succeed to the remarkable extents we do all across The West. We are grateful for buses arriving in time, for water running when we turn on the tap, for the lights to come on when we flick the switch.
This power is now not only being denied, but actively eradicated from our youth by activist “educators” and cultural elites. They are being told that their countries - the same which saved the lives of my family, among countless others - are inherently sinful and evil, and must be deracinated, abolished and, in its place, a radically different social order established.
They are told to expect alms, demand reparations for sufferings they did not endure, taken from people who did not administer any crimes. They are proselytised into believing they are entitled without achieving, owed without earning. And they are brainwashed into resenting the freedoms so many generations fought and died for.
Leaving aside the colossal historical and sociological error in their narrative, the greatest tragedy of this movement is how disempowering it is for the young people who are indoctrinated into believing such lies by charlatans and hucksters.
Where gratitude is as close to a superpower a person can possess, this conviction only works to cripple its adherents. Whereas ownership is empowering, victimhood is debilitating.
Telling the young that they are nothing but victims and blinding them to all the unprecedented opportunities, freedoms and privileges at their fingertips, is one of the cruelest and most contemptible undertakings imaginable, and that this is now the prevailing narrative in the mainstream is as alarming as it is tragically harrowing.
Instilling gratitude for our opulence and those who sacrificed so that we can have such, becomes an unstoppable force of commitment, drive and ambition. The grateful repays by taking advantage of opportunities, and creates more for those who follow. The grateful will always achieve prosperity - for herself and others. This is a law of nature as certain as gravity.
Imagine then the cruelty in denying this power to the youth. To disarm them of one of the greatest weapons against poverty, solipsism and hopelessness. To bereave them of one of the most reliable forces for achieving success. For bettering oneself.
This has to stop. We need our young generations to tackle societal challenges like climate change and future pandemics with fervour, enthusiasm and passion. This will not be done by those who believe society is not worth saving.
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This is excellent, Amir. A reminder of how truly powerful gratitude can be.