- Ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you an observation: Not once have cynics changed the world.
- It always has been, as the famous Apple campaign would call them, "The Crazy Ones." The last line of their brilliantly crafted ad: "...because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."
- That said, far be it from me to suggest that everyone should try and change the world. After all, everyone's idea of how the world should change differs wildly. The world definately doesn't need 6 billion crazy people who want to change it in 6 billion different ways. But the world also doesn't need 1 million people who want to change the world and 5,999,000,000 people who think they're crazy and wish that they would go away.
- My point, or rather my question is this: where do the non-crazy-ones fit in? What part do they play? And when does that part enter into the plot of our little human drama? What should they do while waiting for their next chance to crowd the streets?
- My guess is that non-crazy-ones need to believe in something positive when it seems like there's nothing to believe in. In times like now, it would be easy to fall into the trap of cynicism and become a chronic malcontent. But cynicism leads to rigidity, narrow thinking, and, ultimately, complacency. Yes, it feels good to give up the fight when it feels like all is lost anyhow. Or to fight blindly - swinging at everything. It feels good to let the mainstream take you where it may. But don't be shocked when you miss your chance to make a difference. The thing about the stream is you tend to lose track of where it's headed.
- Stay alert, optimistic, and energized enough to hear the call when it
comes. In the former Czechoslovakia, for example, the university
students travelled the countryside - going to homes and town centers -
urging people to protest Soviet rule. Most didn't, but enough did. Even
after 20+ years of repressive, dictatorial communism, a million people
of all ages showed up in the center of Prague and, in one day, brought
it all to an end. Now, that was only 1/15 of the population of the
country. But it was enough.
- If all you ever do for political change, social change, or legal change in this country is show up when the call comes, that's enough. To walk the streets immediately following an MLK speech was enough. To stand in Prague's Wenseslas Square and jingle your house keys along with 1,000,000 others, was enough.
- Stay loose. In your lifetime, the call will come. Of course, if you're the one making the call, all the better. But that should not be the measurement to which you hold yourself.
- In the meantime, all you really have to do is dream.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"The word 'respect' comes from the latin word 'respectus' which means 'to see again.' Notice the thread that connects us all."
-anon
Stumble It!