There are a lot of things that everyone can do, and should do, to make the world better. Here's my latest list of 15 things: Trust your instincts; Listen, learn and teach others; Learn and practice critical thinking; Re-learn how to imagine; Use less stuff; Stop at one child; Become less dependent; Become an activist; Volunteer; Be a role model; Be a pioneer; Find or create a meaningful job; Share your expertise; Be good to yourself; and Infect others with your courage and spirit and passion. It's the least we can do. It's necessary that we do these things to be clearer about what else we need to do, because these things by themselves won't be enough.
The answer to the question of how to save the world I tried to give a few days ago is just a small part of the picture, but it is also a very important part. Human population needs to greatly decrease. We can attempt to choose to do this gradually (and less painfully) or let it happen to us very quickly (which would be more painful). But for the most part (other than my own childbearing decisions), that is out of my control, and I'd be better off focusing on what I can control and what actions I can take to help regenerate the vitality of my home. Some ways I am looking to do that right now are are working with food not bombs. And in the future (perhaps this summer) I would like to get involved with an urban farm in north city. My mom has also suggested looking into an interesting place called Enota, an eco-village in Georgia. Hopefully, you can see how through these things I hope to pursue, I will be doing my best to fulfill some of those 15 things. Hopefully, I'll discover someday how my college education will help me in this way as well, because this is what I want to do with my life- save the world, or at least do as much as I can towards that end. I don't know how useful this will be in regard to that end, but I'm finding that I am most interested in taking those classes that will broaden, at least intellectually, my understanding of people different from myself. This is why I am taking intro to women's studies and intro to anthropology. And next semester, I want to take intro to african american studies. I don't know if something like that can be translated into a major, but I might just try. Or I might just drop out, because broadening my own intellectual understanding doesn't do shit. I need to hook myself up with some homemade internships and figure out how to apply myself usefully somehow somewhere. Because I have the somewhat irrational fear that I will not be useful somehow somewhere, and that kind of self doubt is rather disheartening. All I know is that I have gone through 13 years of institutionalized education, and I am not any closer to figuring out what I will be doing, in specific terms, during the course of my life. Again, the only thing I can control is what I am doing right now at this moment. The future is unwritten.
Edit [1/27/06 2:40pm]: This is another article by the same guy that goes into detail about the 15 things, if you are interested.
Stop at one child
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese have done this, forcibly.
No aunts, no uncles. And a society that, while population-controlled, has lost its sense of family.
What kind of society would be produced from "only" children?
I wonder how other species would develop around having just one offspring.
I am not advocating communism at all. Communism is all about control. Control is what I am rejecting completely. That was a list of 15 things that people could choose to do individually, not have the government force people into doing them.
ReplyDeleteI have similar qualms about only-children. I am personally glad that I was not one. But, I also see this as more of a problem with the nuclear family setup. Imagine a childhood where, yes, you are the only child of your parents, but you are living with three or four sets of parents in the household, and you have three or four children who would relate to you as both friends and siblings. Of course, it would take a lot of planning and luck to set up a situation like this in our current society, but that is the kind of environment I would want my only child to grow up in, no to mention the fact that my parents could be living in the household as well, along with other older generations. I'm talking about rebuilding the family tribe. Many people probably can't imagine or bear the thought of living with their parents throughout their parents lives, but this is only evidence of how fucked up the nuclear family paradigm is. Children really do need to be raised by a village (and not in some metaphorical sense where the school and church communities supposedly play a role. Those communities do, but not nearly enough.) All I'm trying to say is that this only-child thing can be a part in regaining a sense of family.
(disclaimer:all of this is not in reference to personal experience but rather to the general impression I have of modern families)
here's a qualm for your site
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tomcampbell.be
HOW DO YOU LIKE THOSE APPLES??