See Who You Are

Change the world. Start with yourself.

Nov 14, 2023

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C.S. Lewis

See Who You Are

Ah, I see. So you want to change the world, make it a better place, right? Yeah, I thought so. Presumably you're somewhere between sixteen to around twenty-four now and I am sure you've grown up to be such an amazing person so far. I'm proud of you.

Additionally allow me to say that's a great goal to have, kudos. I really mean that from the bottom of my fatherly heart. You see injustices in the world and you want to correct them. You see imbalance in the world and you want to help set the scales back.

Perhaps there's a disaster you're being made aware of looming in the near future and you want to avert the end of humanity. Whatever it is, you want to help. That is amazing and great that you do.

But who are you? What do you know? How do you know what you know? How do you know that what you know is actually right? What skills can you bring to the table to do any of this helping and changing?

The answer for most people, including myself, is not much. But hey we have plenty of people on earth, right? We just band together and fix this correct? Well yes, but also no. Humankind is capable of amazing and impossible things when working together.

But here's another question because this section is all about questions. Who is going to lead or coordinate this effort? If you're thinking there doesn't need to be a hierarchy, prepare to deal with a ton of chaos and people trying to create one anyway. Good luck there and let me know how it goes.

If you figure out how to do it then great! And that answers some of the questions from the beginning of this paragraph, but people aren't a hive mind in a literal sense. Crowds can exhibit some similar behaviors, but they also have leaders.

Another question for you, how do you know you can trust that leader? How do you know what they say is correct? How do you know what they say isn't just incorrect, but that it isn't intentionally misleading for their own gain?

I know this is frustrating. We all want things to change for the better, with an impossibly small number of people being the exceptions to that. Unfortunately those are the people who rely on things being the same in order to continue gaining status or to continue to maintain their current status.

That's the unfortunate and painful truth. Yet all is not lost, though I do have some more questions. Let's say you think you can make an impact at your current state and you aren't worried about the other questions. Let's say that's true, but here's an easy question.

Is your own room clean? Or, now that I think about it, are you clean? Do you take care of yourself? What about your family? How ordered or organized is your house? How well is your daily life going?

These are important questions, really. Is there a chance those things aren't going well or aren't done and you're looking for distractions? Yes, I would say that is likely a possibility if those very important aspects of your life aren't absolutely perfect.

Luckily life doesn't require perfection too much, so don't fret there's still a path forward. How about we ponder this question together, hopefully it won't take long. Here goes: If you cannot keep a room or a house or your daily life in perfect order, how would you be able to keep the world as a whole in perfect order?

I guess that's an easy one, you can't. Even if you somehow attained perfection in your own life, keeping order in everyone else's life is not possible. In fact, try just one other person at your own peril. It won't go well. But those are extreme examples.

You can do something I am sure. But where I am going with all this is you need to work on yourself first, then outward into your community to actually be a force for good.

Ameliorating suffering is important and an admirable goal. I actually hope you follow that path, personally. But it all starts with you. Put yourself together first. Fix yourself. Then fix your room, and your house. Then help your family, then your slightly broader community.

Keep going from there and you will change not just your world, but the world of many others around you. The impact you can have is immeasurable. You will never know exactly the amount you impact others. The problem is it goes both ways, negative and positive.

You want to make sure you aren't too stupid to see that the action you are about to take isn't going to result in you creating or extending suffering. Personally I don't think you're that stupid, but I also thought at times I wasn't stupid enough to create unintentional or even intentional deleterious effects on the lives of others and wow was I wrong.

Just be careful and be that which you wish to see in others. Take your time, work outward but gain that experience taking on more and more. You can make a difference, but it cannot happen globally first, that is the end result, not a starting point.

Maybe it would be fitting to end this on some questions that may help.

Who are you now?

Who do you want to be?

How can you become your vision?

See Who You Are

Change the world. Start with yourself.

See Who You Are

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