There probably couldn’t be any more different people than me and May from May’s Machete : she is a girl, I am a guy; she is skinny, I am fat; she is an idealist, I am a cynic; she is an activist, I am lazy and indifferent. That doesn’t prevent me from following her blog just as an example of everything I am not and rarely commenting on it just for fun. Few days ago she wrote about climate change wiping out certain cultures when natural resources they depend on (land, food, food for their food) disappear. I personally view it as a fact of life on Earth so I commented:
Humans (and animals) were killed or inconvenienced by global events since day one:from Pompeii to dust bowl to tsunami to upcoming eruption in Yellowstone, just a fact of life on Earth. Nobody complained when these islands appeared as a result of some other geo-calamity, or when Kansas stopped being beach-front property. Stuff happens.
Which is exactly how I view it. Things happen on Earth every day and kill a bunch of people. I am not sure if on some other continent people spend any time concerning themselves with what to do to prevent tornadoes in Kansas. Long time ago things like this happened without a worldwide press coverage, nowadays modern technology provides early warnings and the rest of the world usually assists with recovery.
But that’s not what this is about. May replied to my comment:
m.v. – Just because stuff happens doesn’t mean I’m okay with destruction on a mass scale enough to sit around and do nothing when I can make a difference.
This sentence is the main difference between May and me (right, Brian?): I sit around and do nothing and she makes a difference. Except I am pretty sure that the end result is the same.
There has to be a way to measure what happens when someone takes up a cause, goes to a rally, votes, stops eating meat, etc. Something like a Coefficient of Performance in physics which is “What you GOT/What you BOUGHT”. In this case I will call it a Coefficient of Goodness (make up your own name) and will express it as “What you (or someone) GOT/what you DID”. In my case it’s always an invalid number because I do exactly 0 and you can’t divide by zero. However, in case of an activist there should be some non-zero number i.e.:
- number of millimeters of the sea level drop per blog post
- number of surviving reindeer per household with reduced carbon footprint
- amount of improvement in economy per one vote for Obama
- number of propositions in California repealed per one protest on the Plaza
- number of days of peace in Gaza per one pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli rally in Kansas City
- number of Scientologists recovered per one Anonymous.
As far as I know these are all zeroes. You are probably saying that one person can’t make a difference but if you add a lot of these you can produce some real change, but my (computer science) degree from UMKC says it will still be a zero.
There are other types of actions where the coefficient is non-zero, i.e a walking to collect money for cancer research, or purchasing and donating a cow but in these cases actual money exchanges hands and produces measurable results.
So if the action is worthless and misguided why do people still do it? I imagine it makes them feel good about themselves, gives a certain sense that they did something to help. Was that “something” effective or even necessary? Probably not. Who knows. I certainly don’t. I just sit around and do nothing.
An interesting post, Meesha. You may be right about the coefficient being zero, but I think if you start to multiply the effect or influence on people surrounding, you end up with something more than zero.
Good begets good, or something like that.
So what brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union? What brought about the American and French Revolutions? What stopped the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan? What got the first space shuttle named “Enterprise”? Why is Walt Bodine still on the air? People taking action does have an impact and it does change things. We just elected an African-American President. Your position does not stand up to scrutiny.
economy brought out the collapse of the soviet union and it was finally initiated from the top. vietmamese stopped the war in vietnam by kicking your ass. afghanis kicked russians’ ass there with your rockets+economy again. i am starting to think that you voted for obama just for the bragging rights and it weren’t bloggers or activists who elected him.as a matter of fact i am convinced that democrat party leadership’s ability to keep crazies on the leash actually helped obama. behind most events there are real reasons that may not be obvious and most of the time they are a lot less inspiring than you want them to be. also as far as i know (XO) you still eat beef,cows fart, oceans rise, people suffer. i blame you
Hmm. I actually think people making the right decisions COULD “change the world.”
But it will never happen because people either A) lack the ability to know what the right decision is and/or B) lack the will to make that decision even (or especially) when they know what it is.
Great change could be made if “people” wanted it, but the American voting public in particular doesn’t want to do anything. They would rather vote for someone who promises “hope” and “change” rather than take responsibility for the crap that’s going on in their own neighborhoods.
Okay… deep breath…. must not rant….
Coming from a family of activists, My father fighting to save the land of the southwest, my mother politically from the time I began having memories and then my older sisters carrying on with political and social activism, I developed strong opinions of my own. An amalgam of those values I learned at home and opinions formed on my own over time. I don’t have the personality for activism, however am proud to speak up when I feel it is necessary. This is a great topic and great discussion.
May said “when I can make a difference.”
While I don’t agree with her viewpoint on global warming (now changed to climate change ahem) I do agree I can make a difference and if enough “I’s” get together, “we” can make a difference. But, what kind of difference? The global warming crowd thinks they can control climate. I disagree. However, they can control a lot of other things. They can force us to pay for our “carbon footprint”. They can force the cost of food to dramatically increase (cow fart tax). They can put a lot of people out of work. The list goes on. Therefore, I believe their actions are so egregious that it requires my reaction cause it’s one of those things that ticks me off. So, in the end we activists end up with high blood pressure or other assorted self-inflicted maladies while Meesha just watches the whole thing happen while calmly going about his life and he might just be right.
1 + 1 = 2 – 1 – 1 = 0.
I think that if enough of us just keep out mouths shut and keep behaving precisely as we already do, all of the world’s ills will be repaired. Meesha’s just doing his part. All it takes for good to triumph is for enough good men to stand by and do nothing, right?
here is an example:picking up trash=results, protesting dirty streets=worthless; donating a case of HIV medicine=results, standing with the sign “cure HIV”=worthless; adopting a family for Christmas= results, writing your congressman about your views on economy=worthless; sometimes I choose to do something that is likely to produce results, I never choose things that I judge worthless.
You know, writing your congressman should have results. Unfortunately, politicians don’t really care what you have to say unless your opinion comes attached to a campaign donation…
That’s why I refuse to vote for Emmanuel Cleaver. I wrote him a letter about the absurd costs of antibiotics and he replied with a form letter on an only mildly-related topic, stating he supports seniors going to Canada for their prescriptions. Thanks for nothing Manny…
lol. I don’t assume I make any difference to climate change via my blog, but my personal choices in daily life at least make a dent and that’s enough for me.
sometimes people want to draw attention to “causes” so that others stop to consider the fact that we’re not entitled to the largess we’ve enjoyed as americans until recently. things are just leveling out. welcome to the rest of the world.
This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about, dude. MORE.
I’ve got to find a way to stay on top of this shit daily. I’d like to be a part of this conversation, but let’s be real. This conversation was over a week ago.
so let’s just leave it at, I still think you’re cool and I get the laid back not doing much vibe(Hi, I smoke lotsa dope yo!) but it doesn’t mean we can’t do nothing.