Posted in: Folk by Aine on January 10th, 2008 | 0 Comments
John Mayer sings about merely waiting on the world to change. I discuss exactly why this line of thinking is negative and enforces no change in the problems of today.
Really? What happened to the good old belief that one person can change the world? I don’t remember Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther, Churchill, George C Marshall, Joan of Arc, William Wallace…
There are many that made a difference or made an impact, and those that fought for change in sociopolitical arenas- and those were all people that weren’t in power. They knew it took someone to stop whining and to step up and get active
This is not a call to become an activist to everyone who reads it. In fact my changes/effects to change the world are the things that I can personally do. I can affect my local community, my country. I can choose not to support practices I don’t agree with- and I can either choose to believe that little ole me boycotting a practice makes no difference, or I can choose to believe we all make a difference. But sitting around singing and whining about it does nothing.
I dont sit in front of companies with picket signs (although I”m not opposed). I don’t do much different than the average American. But I am informed enough to know that there are practices I just don’t agree with, and thus I dont support them, I talk about them, I discuss them with others, and I make an active decision to do or not to do something, instead of just hoping things will change.
I believe that in raising children that are productive, moral members of society, raised with the idea that they can create change, and can give back to this world IS changing the world. It is making a change and a contribution. One of the best things we can do to affect change is to make the next generation even more productive and active. Instead of a generation of people who just wait.
