As we enter into 2026, we get to see the vast myriad of New Year’s resolutions thrown around and how many people will actually follow through with them—around 9 percent. This is for a variety of reasons: people feel pressured into making resolutions, they lose interest, they end up quitting, etc. However, we, as a nation, should collectively make some New Year’s resolutions, and unlike 91 percent of people, actually stick with them and accomplish our goals.
1. Empathy, Empathy, Empathy
Our first—and by far most important resolution—is to bring back basic empathy. Over the past few years, but especially under Trump’s second term, there has been a very noticeable lack of empathy all over the country. This ranges from unnecessarily hate-filled comment sections all the way to the federal government. Elon Musk says this extremely well, as he said, “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy,” whilst on the Joe Rogan podcast.
But how do we fix our greatest flaw as a nation?
We do this by realizing a basic fact that has somehow slipped the consciousness of some of our fellow Americans: everyone is a human being, and should be treated as such. People should not be labeled and treated like animals. They should not be seen as a plague to our country, and you should care for other people because it’s a basic human instinct. If we did not have empathy during our caveman times, we would most likely be extinct, and would not have been able to evolve enough to create civilization.
Without empathy, civilization crumbles. If no one cares for one another, the resulting rat-race of trying to out-compete everyone leads to the majority suffering, both emotionally and physically. If we didn’t have empathy, we would never once give to the poor and the needy, leading to them starving and dying out in the freezing cold. Is that really where we want America to be headed? Do we really want modern-day America to be a carbon copy of Victorian England, filled to the brim with starving, poor peasants, as the few elites live in the luxury of being able to decide the fate of the common folk?
Because without empathy, we will be no better as a nation, as people, as a civilization, and as a society. Those in need will die in need, and life will—even more than it already does—come to luck of the draw.
2. Willingness to Change
Our second resolution, just slightly less important than the first, is to become willing to change. Many MAGA, as well as plenty of other Americans, are incredibly stubborn and extremely unwilling to change. This comes in many forms, from simply refusing to try something new, to dismissing opinions other than their own, and even being hateful to those who identify differently — American culture and politics are rooted in conservatism.
One of the hardest things for a person to do is to accept that they were wrong and change. Another very difficult thing for people to do is to accept new information that challenges their worldview. Doing this messes with your brain and makes you question everything.
Obviously, most people don’t want to question everything and anything, which leads many to fall into a cycle of denying what they don’t want to be true and validating information they do want to be true—even though it’s often wrong or severely lacking context.
But how do we fix our unwillingness to change?
The easiest way to do so is to broaden your horizons when it comes to your news. One simple thing you can do is instead of reading just one news article about something—or even worse, an AI summary—read two or three from different sources across the political spectrum. Something as simple as this can really broaden your horizons, which will help you accept different viewpoints that may or may not challenge your own.
Another thing you can do is accept and realize the fact that everyone is different, has different circumstances, values, beliefs, etc. Now, this may seem like common sense, but really just think about it. I have a different viewpoint of the world than you, and so do your parents, teachers, co-workers, friends, lovers, and family members.
And none of us has a “correct” worldview. And that’s okay.
What matters is that we should be able to accept these differences and be willing to change our worldview as we learn new information. The human brain is an incredibly powerful machine that, given new information, should adapt; this ability quite literally keeps us alive.
Now, let’s hypothetically say that you thought that blue fire was colder than orange fire. Thinking this, you put your hand in some blue fire, as you didn’t think it would burn you. But it did, and pretty badly. Afterward, your reaction should be, “Wow! Blue fire is warmer than orange fire and if I stick my hand in blue fire, I will get burnt worse than regular fire,” and not, “Nature is wrong; blue fire is colder than regular fire and I won’t let this change my mind.”
If you did think the second way, you would have probably died a long, long time ago, as your brain simply wouldn’t have adapted to basic survival principles.
As a nation, we should be willing to change, because if we can’t, not only would America end up as a backwater, medieval-like abomination, but we—or at least a lot of us—would be dead.
3. Pick up a Book!!!
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command,” is a famous quote from George Orwell’s book 1984. This quote, along with the book and Orwell as a whole, is often cited by people for a wide array of reasons, mostly for political policies that they don’t like. One group that makes use of this is MAGA, which regularly ironically cites Orwell, despite rejecting the evidence of their eyes and ears.
January 6th, 2021: an infamous day in American history where MAGA loyalists stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to keep Donald Trump in office. However, despite witnessing it with their eyes and ears, many of these same MAGA loyalists now deny what they saw, saying that it was done by “ANTIFA (Anit-Fascist Movement),” or “undercover FBI operatives” or it was “just a tour of the Capitol building,” or a plethora of other conspiracy theories.
But January 6th wasn’t something done behind closed doors and hidden from the public; it was broadcast live, all across the news and social media. I know this because I distinctly remember my dad yelling, “Desmond! Come downstairs and look at the TV! Something that’s never happened before was happening!” And that’s when I saw it, rioters storming the Capitol, on PBS news, with my own eyes.
But how do we fix America’s tendency to listen to the “party,” whether it be a certain political party, one particular [set] of news station[s] that reinforce their world view, online influencers that do similar to those news networks, or straight up propaganda, and reject what they’ve seen with their own eyes and ears?
Do what the title states: Pick Up a Book! Not only will reading help sharpen your mind, but it can even further enhance your perspective. Some topical books to read consist of the previously mentioned 1984 (anti-authoritarianism), Fahrenheit 451 (book banning/burnings), and A People’s History of the United States (exploitation of the masses for the elites).
Some other, albeit not as interesting and harder to read, pieces of work to delve into might be Common Sense (a pamphlet that argued for independence from Britain) and even the Constitution itself, well, really just the amendments.
All in all, these three simple goals: become more empathetic, more willing to change, and read more, can do wonders for America—if we decide to go through with them. If we do what we should, we will end 2026 as a nation more sympathetic, harmonized, and intelligent with a diverse array of opinions based on actual logic, reasoning, and evidence—not conspiracy theories. With this, America should (hopefully) become a better America for all. Happy New Year!
