change

In my "Education in a Changing World" class through Open Universities Australia, Dr. Ross Boyd discusses society, culture, and education. In one of his lectures he discusses complexity sciences, which show a clear interactive relationship between all members of an area and also that a series of small steps or changes can lead to a huge transition. It's the idea of the straw that broke the camel's back. It wasn't just that one straw, but each of the others that came before as well. The same is true for climate change or ecosystem destruction - usually it's a compilation that causes the shift.

The idea of small steps and changes leading to large-scale change should be our focus for doing good. Someone said (maybe it was Victor Hugo? I'm not sure.) that all it takes for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing. With all the negativity and anxiety surrounding us it's so easy to feel overwhelmed and vanquished. Each of us doesn't have to try to do everything - it's just that we all need to do something. An article proclaiming the benefits of the helpful life said that the most selfish thing you can do is to make the world a better place for your child. I don't think the means matter here - just the end. There is plenty of hunger, illiteracy, homelessness, isolation, mental illness, and disease for all of us to work on. It's not what you're doing that matters so much - it's that you're doing something. If we all decided to do one thing for someone else, or if we decided to leave one place better than when we got there, we could be the change. I want to do something so that evil doesn't flourish. I want my children to have a better world than the one I inherited.