How are you changing the world?
(Old person lecture coming up.)
One of the annoying tropes in comic books is the solitary person who can, with whatever power s/he has, can destroy/change the world. No. The concept is dumb: one itty bitty little human can not change the world.
Bloganuary has shown me how much we speak in cliches. The Internet is filled with ’em and I think we take them to heart and believe life is simple, our problems complex, and our impact oversized and so let me tell you quite clearly: You and I can not change change the world — and that is a good thing.
Do you remember that feeling in high school when you left the house with a new hairstyle, a new kind of fashion, or new make-up and you felt that everyone’s eyes were on you? No one paid any mind. If people noticed, they quickly forgot. The same is true when we clean up trash on the beach, post a hashtag, or engage in the UN. It is human nature to overestimate our effect on the world and from what I’ve seen, overestimating is biggest reason people don’t take chances with the little to large things in their lives.
I have not changed the world and neither have you. At best, I’ve been a good person and have impacted the lives of the people I work for and with in positive ways. I’ve added value to conversations. I’ve participated in community events. And I’ve touched individual lives, such as the injured pigeon I cared for, the kittens I adopted, the friends I stayed up late with and the homeless people I make eye contact with.
Before you pat yourself on the back — or chide yourself — for whatever you have or haven’t done to change the world, take a close look around you and work on that.
Tell me in the comments what you had for dinner today? 😁
made by you and I 
Though I agree with you that we overestimate our impact, I do think that even the little things we do that effect one person creates a ripple that continues. When we spread kindness and ease even one person’s pain it makes a difference to that one person, who in turn, buoyed by the good energy experienced, goes on to do the same for someone else. And on and on it continues. Which means that one tiny act of joy and kindness instigates a ripple that makes a change.
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Thank you for the comment and idea. ❤️
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The world is an unfathomable place. I do not see myself changing the whole world, but I see what I do change with the little things changing those around me. I have not traveled the whole world, and the world will not change, we will not fix climate change for example, unless every country, every government works together with one plan. My opinion the world is ran and controlled by wealth. He who has the gold rules the world. The last election changed money markets from one country to another, the trade agreement with Australia changed with the USA and lamb prices soared in the USA. The only one effected was the USA, Australia has plenty of places to sell lamb. The USA does not raise enough lamb. But I also believe a pebble can start a landslide, but only in my area.
What is your youtube channel ?… the food always looks so good. I love to cook, and new recipes are always welcome.
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Thanks, Amtolle. I didn’t know the US had some kind of trade agreement with Oz over lamb. I’m guessing the higher prices mean you earn more money?
As for my channel, it’s called ‘Made By You and I’. Just search for it in YouTube and it’ll come up.
Tonight I’ll be releasing a video for Miso Butter Pasta, so check it out. 🙂
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“Bloganuary has shown me how much we speak in cliches.” Pretty much sums up what I think of this prompt and many others. Good luck on the latest one.
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Thanks. It’s good to be at the end! 🙂
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Sounds like you’re agreeing with me😂. We can change the world, collectively. So now let’s agree to agree 😂. Mi dun!! That’s Jamaican talk for I’m done.
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You kittens and your friends and all the things you have done are a part of this world, even if just a small part. So if you have impacted those things, you have changed the world my friend! One little bit at a time 🙂.
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No, I have not. I have affect things in the world, which is not the same thing.
The world is HUGE — so much broader than our minds can conceive and to believe we change it is ego (hubris), not reality.
The things we do affect what is around us — a very tiny part of something unfathomable. If we are aware of our limitations, then we can be conscious of our true impact and so be in a better position to take risks.
If we think our individual actions lead to a global outcome (and plenty of people do), then we get “thoughts and prayers”, “hashtag x”, and armchair warriors.
We’re quibbling over language, but I think the point is important because how we define “world” is the difference between ‘cleaning my room’ (getting my own house in order) and getting into other people’s business.
Thoughts?
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Hey, I guess I’m a simpler person than you are. I’m taking the question at face value. I don’t think WordPress is asking us how we solved the world’s problems all by ourselves. Btw I live in the US and I saw how one election changed the entire world. You’re right one person acting alone might not make a big enough impact to change an entire world but collectively make a difference. Still I refuse to downplay the individual effort. Decent kids grow up to be decent leaders and that decency and disciple, and empathy, and trust and fairness and honesty is taught in simple homes like yours and mine. Maybe I’m naive, but I choose to believe we all change the world collectively each of us doing our little part.
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Thanks.
BTW, that election didn’t change the world. The world went on just fine. Most people here in Japan aren’t even aware who the US president is and having traveled during that time, people outside the US didn’t care at all about what was happening in the US.
One of the biggest surprises I got was traveling in the late 80’s and early 90’s, that is, while the Cold War was still raging on. What surprised me is that even in Europe, they were not big USA fans as we’d be lead to believe. The long and short is, don’t trust the media AND the world is a much, much, much broader place that anyone can conceive.
Our point is a quibble over the meaning of ‘world’. I hold that language is important. To say that one changes the world is to over estimate our impact.
And you are not naive, we agree that our actions affect what is near by. Our disagreement is how wide the affects are.
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I dunno bout that. I can only speak for myself but my world changed big time. Guess I’m curious to know, what would consider a change in the world?
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I don’t want to give you the impression I’m picking on you or disrespecting your idea — I’m not — but unlike that song from the 80’s, ‘we are not the world’, so the 2016 election affecting you is not the same as it affecting the world. Perhaps the election is a good example, because it was presented (to the West) as world changing when it really wasn’t and perhaps the insistence that it was gave individual people in the States an outsized impression of Trump’s importance. That exaggeration stressed out the individual and made it very easy to manipulate the people (which is how I saw it playing out from the comfort of my living room in Japan).
What is my idea of changing the world? I can think of none.
There are plenty of examples of changing, say, the Western World. The so called World Wars affected large parts of the Industrialized World (and to a lesser extent the poorer counties they exploited), but there were large parts of the world that were unaffected by both world wars — so not world changing except when the effects are taken across decades, not any single event.
“A” change in the world, well Steve Job’s is said to have introduced the iPhone but is it fair to give his ego the credit when it was tens of thousands of individuals working together that actually designed, made, and introduced the iPhone? If I say that Steve Jobs did that I undervalue the individuals that actually brought the iPhone into the world while ignoring the slave labor that produces them.
Collections of people working across time can create change and single individuals often become the face of such a change but the truth is more complex. 😉
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My day just began and I don’t even know what to make for lunch let alone dinner😀
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Oh, that’s easy, Ganga: Idli and Sambar, the perfect breakfast. (sighs longingly)
I stayed in India for a year and that is my favorite thing in the world, well for breakfast, anyway. 😁
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ha that would have been nice!
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