Sunday, June 9, 2013

‘I’ is the new ‘we’

744:


Everything the human race has so far achieved has grown out of ‘ideas’ that have fallen into our heads, exploded into our imagination and been implemented to see if they work. Sometimes they really do work and we benefit from them always. Sometimes ideas work only for a time and end up doing more harm than good. In that case, hopefully, we see the error and fix it.
But who is this ‘we’? On a personal level I can dream up ideas and fix them. I can do all this on my own account but I can’t change a collective or global trend. There are certain dangerous, entrenched, global habits, and if I scream about them they won’t necessarily get fixed. I can try to be useful, however.
            How to be useful? Not take part in the habit, boycott, go towards an alternative?
Take the internal combustion engine, for example. It was such an asset at first but, a century down the track, it’s contributing to the death of our planet. The car is a big problem, but it’s unlikely that you’re going to give it up. It’s so useful. It’s so ‘essential’. And if you give it up (for the greater good) I won’t necessarily give mine up.
             Our modern day lifestyle includes many of these damaging habits, damaging for myself, for the planet, for the future, and these ‘out-of-control’ problems worry us, make us afraid and pessimistic, and make the future look grim. And it’s all the more depressing to know that most of us haven’t even started shedding these habits; our own daily lifestyle is still cranking up the machine. We are either too obstinate or too impotent to change.
And don’t we say to ourselves, “I’m reluctant to take the lead if I don’t think you will join me”. We don’t act together. I can’t see how I, acting alone, will be making anything more than a self-sacrificing gesture. Sell the car, use less electricity, give up meat – all very brave and noble, but will you be so impressed that you will follow suit? And if you don’t then could my own efforts make me feel resentful? Why should I give up things on principle, only to end up making my own living conditions more uncomfortable than they already are? Perhaps I figure that I’ll wait for you to change first. Then I’ll follow suit! So, it seems that most of us follow fashions, we don’t lead them. Perhaps this is the most dangerous habit we have.
Imagine then, instead, that I don’t care what you or anybody else does. Imagine then, that I act from conscience only, no longer acting on the assumption that what most people do is what I should do. Imagine then my taking a bold step, and thinking that if you decide to come along that would be good, but if you don’t, so be it - the norm no longer affects my decision to do what I think is right.
            This isn’t as unrealistic as it might seem, because it brings us to the possibility of enjoying the process of change and experimenting with finding new ways to self motivate; the trick being not to keep looking around to see what others are doing, or looking for their approval for what we are doing.
            Coming back to these damaging habits and our need to shed them and work towards finding better ones; by connecting personal fulfillment with practical repair work, change becomes less painful. We can actually enjoy the hard work involved.

It’s like that when you decide to become vegan. Even though others aren’t doing it, the rightness of doing it is obvious. Even though there’s a fear of failure, satisfaction comes with each step taken. So, this particular change of daily habit (no longer using meat and products taken from animals’ bodies) gradually shows results. There’s an improvement in health and energy, and the big bonus is that we are helping to get animals off death row. These three features of veganism boost self esteem, if nothing else. It’s rather as if we have taken the first steps in regaining control of our own lives AND our own world. These three ‘results’ are ultimately satisfying because what I do is the magnetic pull to what ‘we’ will eventually all do.

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