I have often heard about “doing good deeds” to make this world a better place. Many people and institutions have strongly urged the society time and again to act responsibly and do “our little bit” in bringing about reform. It is a beautiful thing to eliminate what is evil and bad to improve our surroundings and environment. It is also very noble to contribute in the process of bringing a change, which is progressive and helps and heals everyone but at times I have felt that my “little efforts” in trying to make this world a better place have been fruitless. They are fruitless in the sense that my small efforts are powerful enough to affect my immediate surroundings, be it my neighbor, or the stranger in need I met on the local train, or the friend in my college, but my small efforts fall flat on face when it comes to a global change or a nationwide reform.
My ideas to make this world a better place fail day in and out because those ideas are not accepted and acted upon by everybody else and they don’t translate into a tide of reform. Not many people believe in doing many good deeds, which will cumulatively impact the society. Then there is the free rider problem, which basically means that people feel that since everyone else is doing good for others, let me be selfish and enjoy. End result is that there is increasing conflict in the world and peace and harmony is at stake. So I thought more and came up with this reasoning as to why my “small ideas” to “make this world a better place” don’t seem to work. And the answer is in this small phrase – nothing can stop an idea whose time has come. Putting it around, the time for my ideas to convert into a global force for change has not come as yet. Let me elaborate.
I strongly believe that there is a mass / social consciousness. The six billion odd humans each have an independent mindset. They all think differently. They all act upon their free will. But cumulatively every action and thought by every human being leads us to this civilization, which is increasingly becoming global in nature.
This civilization as a whole rejects and accepts ideas very rapidly. When we say that "the time has come " for a particular idea then that essentially means that the global conscious is the deciding factor.
When we blame the world for the way it is we essentially blame the way the global mass conscious has evolved. On and off comes a leader who is able to impress every individual mind, which cumulatively modifies the global thinking process.
No matter how good an idea is, if it is not well received by the majority of the race it does not get wide recognition. That is when the time for the idea has not come. Since man is a selfish creature usually many ideas are not nurtured or allowed to expand by common choice since they might hurt some large /powerful sections of the society. Only when the idea is powerful enough to influence millions of lives does its time come indeed.
For example very soon the world will face a huge energy crises when the conventional energy resources will vanish. What will happen? If the world survives energy wars and is able to realize the importance of peace then fusion energy that is still in experimental stages might be our savior. While fusion has few takers now (and I am sure the oil lobby is not keen on it), in a energy crises stage fusion will have mass support. That is when we can say the time for an idea has come. Else some powerful visionary / institution foresees the benefit of an idea and is able to convince / force upon the immature minds the idea and it may blossom. Many wise people propose, “doing our little bit” but since they are not powerful enough to impact the social mindset, their words of wisdom don’t seem to work.
So when we talk about changing the world we must realize that it is a global thought process we have to change. Individual action does count but if some one really wants to bring in reform then he has to target powerful institutions thought which he can force / influence masses quickly.
Else I feel all sacrifices are a big waste. The idea is to rise high, be at the best place in the world where one can command resources and influence public opinion and then truly one can do good to the world. Grass root level revolutions have been successful only in times of extreme global misery not in our present times of a divided prosperity.
The only problem with my argument above is that when people actually rise high and start commanding resources, they forget that they wanted to be at the top so as to bring about a change and make this world a better place.
Sometimes I really wonder if there is a middle path.
My ideas to make this world a better place fail day in and out because those ideas are not accepted and acted upon by everybody else and they don’t translate into a tide of reform. Not many people believe in doing many good deeds, which will cumulatively impact the society. Then there is the free rider problem, which basically means that people feel that since everyone else is doing good for others, let me be selfish and enjoy. End result is that there is increasing conflict in the world and peace and harmony is at stake. So I thought more and came up with this reasoning as to why my “small ideas” to “make this world a better place” don’t seem to work. And the answer is in this small phrase – nothing can stop an idea whose time has come. Putting it around, the time for my ideas to convert into a global force for change has not come as yet. Let me elaborate.
I strongly believe that there is a mass / social consciousness. The six billion odd humans each have an independent mindset. They all think differently. They all act upon their free will. But cumulatively every action and thought by every human being leads us to this civilization, which is increasingly becoming global in nature.
This civilization as a whole rejects and accepts ideas very rapidly. When we say that "the time has come " for a particular idea then that essentially means that the global conscious is the deciding factor.
When we blame the world for the way it is we essentially blame the way the global mass conscious has evolved. On and off comes a leader who is able to impress every individual mind, which cumulatively modifies the global thinking process.
No matter how good an idea is, if it is not well received by the majority of the race it does not get wide recognition. That is when the time for the idea has not come. Since man is a selfish creature usually many ideas are not nurtured or allowed to expand by common choice since they might hurt some large /powerful sections of the society. Only when the idea is powerful enough to influence millions of lives does its time come indeed.
For example very soon the world will face a huge energy crises when the conventional energy resources will vanish. What will happen? If the world survives energy wars and is able to realize the importance of peace then fusion energy that is still in experimental stages might be our savior. While fusion has few takers now (and I am sure the oil lobby is not keen on it), in a energy crises stage fusion will have mass support. That is when we can say the time for an idea has come. Else some powerful visionary / institution foresees the benefit of an idea and is able to convince / force upon the immature minds the idea and it may blossom. Many wise people propose, “doing our little bit” but since they are not powerful enough to impact the social mindset, their words of wisdom don’t seem to work.
So when we talk about changing the world we must realize that it is a global thought process we have to change. Individual action does count but if some one really wants to bring in reform then he has to target powerful institutions thought which he can force / influence masses quickly.
Else I feel all sacrifices are a big waste. The idea is to rise high, be at the best place in the world where one can command resources and influence public opinion and then truly one can do good to the world. Grass root level revolutions have been successful only in times of extreme global misery not in our present times of a divided prosperity.
The only problem with my argument above is that when people actually rise high and start commanding resources, they forget that they wanted to be at the top so as to bring about a change and make this world a better place.
Sometimes I really wonder if there is a middle path.
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