Nothing you can do by yourself is going to fix any of the major problems in the world.
I’m sorry, was that harsh?
Let me rephrase – alone, we are all but worthless.
There, that’s better.
This is a message that our society doesn’t hand out very often. In fact, we usually get the exact opposite message sold to us, by advertisers and governments alike.
Look at environmental action (since I’m going to be writing about that virtually every column this year – remember, we have just 11 years left to prevent catastrophic climate change!) for example.
I recycle. You probably recycle too! Ad campaigns try to paint this as an act of incredible power. I put that Coke bottle in the blue bin! I’m a friggin’ hero! I saved the planet today!
Bunk.
What saves the world (or temporarily staves off the day we all drown in trash) is collective action. That usually means working through entities like governments, international treaties, corporations, and on the smallest end of the scale, local companies and non-profits.
Humans don’t tend to take well to being told that they’re personally insignificant, but it’s true. If only one person on the planet was driving a giant gas-guzzling Hummer, there’d be no need to worry. A couple of billion people driving cars, using plastic shopping bags and straws, that starts to add up pretty quick.
I’m not saying don’t recycle. I’m saying, your recycling only matters because governments were pressured into creating a vast infrastructure of recycling depots, packaging regulations, taxes, and collection routes that work together to take tons and tons of stuff and keep it out of landfills every year.
Don’t be afraid of this idea that you don’t matter on your own. Embrace it.
None of us matter, because all of us matter. Get enough humans all aimed in the same direction, and you can get pyramids, the end of smallpox, the moon landing.
The guy who lands on the moon is just the tip of the spear, a huge edifice of millions of people working together.
• Read Bob Groeneveld’s Odd Thoughts column at langleyadvance.com