Looking for a lift? Find stories that offer small offsets.

It’s troubling that clean air has become a luxury good in China. It’s encouraging that scientists in Antarctica just grew vegetables without dirt or daylight. (That Matt Damon movie was onto something.)  

It’s getting harder to find much light around how Earth civilizations are being governed.   

Axios delivered more evidence this week of the global creep of authoritarianism. Gen. H.R. McMaster, outgoing national security adviser, told the Atlantic Council that “[w]e are now engaged in a fundamental contest between our free and open societies and closed and repressive systems.” Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright wrote: “Warning signs include the relentless grab for more authority by governing parties in Hungary, the Philippines, Poland and Turkey….” (We’ll look at Hungary and the Philippines below.)

But this was also another week of individuals marching for personal freedom. And a report from (still repressive) Uzbekistan showed real movement toward an opening since 2016.

Thinkers point to the importance of an openness to movement – the idea that we can express values, let others express theirs, and give nothing up. Yesterday, Monitor editors were batting around a piece positing that the root of conflict is in two competing worldviews: fixed versus fluid.

“The fixed tend to be wary of what they perceive as constant threats to their physical security specifically and of social change in general,” writes Thomas Edsall, quoting an email from author Marc Hetherington. “The fluid are much more open to change and, indeed, see it as a strength.”

Now to our five stories for your Friday, looking at styles and perceptions of leadership, the use of trust and collaboration to help keep schools safe, and volunteers’ caring work to transcribe history.