How to change the world
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. (Leo Tolstoy)
If you want to change the world, who do you begin with, yourself or others? (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
Changing the world seems to be almost entirely out of my reach. Those who set out to do it mostly don’t manage it, and the small subset that do run smack into the Law of Unintended Consequences. But changing myself? That seems like a manageable project, a field of operation where I can actually do things, observe their effects, lean into the beneficial ones, backtrack on the damaging ones, deepen my understanding of cause and effect in the world, gradually and diligently align myself with the grain of the universe.
But why do that? It would certainly have personal benefits, my life would steadily improve. But would it have any larger import?
I can aim at one particular optimistic outcome. Is that what would actually happen? I don’t know. But something will.
I have occasionally seen the power of individual example in action, and it is outsized, far greater that I would have predicted. Plant a person of integrity in the midst of people focused on Number One, and there is sometimes a shift — not uniform, not predictable, not inexorable, but still a shift towards a (somewhat) better situation.
People watch what other people do, and some of those will like what they see, and some of those may be inspired to experiment with doing likewise. Some may experience benefits that encourage them to adopt new habits. Some may experience different than I did, or nothing at all, and decide: not for me. Regardless, I was the occasion for someone else to live differently, at least for a moment, possibly to their benefit.
Not nearly as powerful as becoming Dictator Of The World and proceeding to tell people how things really should be done. But a path available to just about anyone.
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