The Voice of Reason: True Progress

Everybody's out to save the world.

Everybody wants to be the hero.

And what's wrong with that?

Nothing--except for one thing. Everybody wants to be in control, and make the changes, and be in charge, and get everybody else to think like them. It's an issue of force. But true progress comes with two first steps: a change in an individual, and that individual taking control of themselves.

We can't force other people to do things. To try and do so will only end in grief for all concerend; and, to quote The Fountainhead, by depending on others--and if you have that kind of control you do need others, without them you have nothing to control--you become a secondhander, which is not a good thing to be.

So if we want real progress, we have to forget about the world--and change ourselves.

"There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self," said Aldous Huxley. Tolstoy said something similar. I think the point is clear enough.

The reason I keep coming back to this idea is because all the things I've been thinking about--and therefore posting about--lately are interrelated. Let's see if I can sort out my thoughts about this progress business so far.

1. We start with choice.
2. We can choose control; control of ourselves.
3. With that control we can change ourselves.
4. With that change will come greater control, and new knowledge, and, most likely, a desire to share--so we share.
5. We show others that they have a choice as well--not to force them to choose our ideas, but to start them on their own journeys.
6. So if we each start doing this, then everybody will do it, and we'll all be progressing.

And we choose what we progress towards; and we can choose to work towards a common purpose.

If the human spirit doesn't change, and change by choice, all the enforced change in the world won't make any difference.

A good example--something we covered in American history. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, reversed the segregation laws. But ten years later, only 2% of schools had desegregated. The change had to come in the society--within each person--before change could be legislated, and work, by just a few individuals who had already changed.

I think the point speaks for itself, and I'm not sure I can say it any clearer. Undoubtedly this is not a new idea, but--well, I've come to it, so I thought I'd do my part and share.

There it is--the key to true progress. Change yourself and lead by example. How simple it seems.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

 •    •    •    •    •    •    •