Categories: social change | sustainability | worldchanging
I should have blogged this, oh... a month ago... but better last than never. :P
Before Christmas, Alex Steffan from WorldChanging wrote to ask me whether I'd be willing to answer their "What Next?" question. They were looking for a range of submissions about emerging and inspirational movements and ideas, to be posted on their site. My first thought was "oh no, I can't answer that... I don't know enough about the new cool things in sustainability." But then I realized that that initial feeling was actually masking a deeper feeling for me, and so I replied to Alex with my real response.
And they published it! I was flattered. But the best part was that I had dug a little deeper, and written something that I believed – which is better than trying to come up with someone in line with what I thought they wanted, or worse, assuming that I had nothing to contribute.
You can read it, and see the comments, here.
Call me a hippie, but I place myself firmly in the "we have to change ourselves first" camp. In my mind, there is no single tool, model, idea, or key piece of knowledge that is going to tip the scales in favour of the world we want to see. I am inspired and endlessly relieved by the practical, solutions-based work being done by so many in the world today – WorldChanging writers and readers among them – but it's as important that we look deeply into ourselves as it is that we look deeply into innovative tools and models for saving the world.
I'd go so far as to say that all would-be worldchangers have an obligation, to themselves and to the greater whole, to embark on such an exploration. The violence we see in our world, the injustice, the apathy, the resistance to change, the fear... all these things originate in each of us, and often in incredibly subtle ways. So befriend yourself, in all your imperfection. Wake up. Stop hoping for external "solutions". Get really honest, first with yourself and then with others. And then begin to allow what you discover to change you, and in turn to change how you engage with the world.
Call me a hippie, but that's my vision for real social change.
