What Can I Do About This?
What you can do about this is small but still significant.
If, like me, you see the world going mad and feel like there must be something you can do, it’s all too easy to become discouraged. You look at the lies people accept, believe, and buy into. What seems completely ugly and horrific to you, others are just allowing. You see these so-called leaders tossing out kindness, compassion, empathy, and even just caring in the name of greed, power, and other fleeting bullshit.
What can I do about this? When it comes to the big picture, the so-called leaders and their terrible enablers and allies – there’s nothing you can do directly. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t indirect, local action you can take. But I will get into that in more detail ahead.
First, however, let’s talk about what you can do about this – in general – when it feels like the answer is “nothing”.
Start with small local actions
Nothing in the universe emerged whole and complete at the start. Smaller blocks went into it. Every single thing in the universe breaks down into way smaller constituent parts. The largest star in the cosmos didn’t just emerge from the void, whole. Subatomic particles became atoms, atoms became molecules, molecules became compounds, and as more and more pieces came together, they formed familiar things.
This is how every person, place, or thing breaks down. This is how every intangible idea also works. An idea, an intangible, is made up of thought. Thought, another intangible, meets feeling. Thought and feeling brought together with intent and a choice of positive approach – all intangibles – lead to action. Through action, the intangible becomes tangible.
For example, in the 1960s, Wah Ming Chang designed the first prop communicator on Star Trek. This would inspire the development of a functional version, which emerged into the flip phone of the mid-1990s. That would lead to the smartphone we know today (which you might be using to read this, in fact).
An idea led to a sci-fi prop that led to a functional variation to where we are now. Smartphones didn’t just come into being, they were developed over time from a single, intangible idea. What was once small and seemingly insignificant has had a global impact that I’m pretty sure nobody could have imagined.
While it might feel like there’s nothing you can do about the bullshit happening in the world, the truth is that even the smallest idea is something. And something is better than nothing.
What can I do about this?
Nothing anyone does in life springs out fully-formed and complete. Everything begins with one single step.
As one of my favorite Lao Tzu quotes goes,
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
You and I can’t do jack shit about the US Government, Israel, Palestine, Russia, Ukraine, and the like. From where we are, we’re too far removed. That doesn’t mean, however, that there’s nothing we can do. This is the local action I wrote about at the start of this.
You and I can vote in elections, attend protests, choose businesses to boycott, support up-and-coming politicians and leaders, choose to run for office, call/email/write Congresspeople and demand they protect us like they’re supposed to, and donate time/money/effort to worthy causes and organizations.
These might seem insignificant. But the truth is, they aren’t. They are what you and I can do about this. Do you think the current situation just came into being, whole, out of thin air? No. It took a lot of concerted effort on the part of some truly awful, selfish assholes to bring us here.
The pendulum always swings back. Now is the time to do the groundwork to build better. But to get anywhere at all, action is required.
Doing nothing does nothing about this
Obvious, right? Not so much. This is especially important because inaction is what “they” – those who created this fuckery – want. They want you and I to be compliant, complacent, and to go quietly into the night and accept that this is how it is, period, end of story.
When you do something, anything to build better for not just yourself, your action is just one step, one piece of the chain. It’s the subatomic particle that can and will join others to form atoms, which in turn form molecules and eventually become tangible things.
Make that call, send that email, boycott that business, join that protest, give what you can – be it material or immaterial.
More than that, however, don’t put your life on hold and give all your time, focus, and attention to the big picture matters you can’t do fuckall about. It’s so, so easy to fall into that rut, and from there, take a downward spiral to depression, hopelessness, and loss. It’s not selfish to live your life and take the paths you choose. This is empowering.
When you’re empowered, that can inspire empowerment in others. From there, even unintentionally, you find something you can do about this, even if it feels small and insignificant. Because nothing you do for good and with kindness, compassion, and empathy, is truly small or insignificant.
Don’t do nothing; do something. Can you see how that’s what you can do about this?
This is the six-hundred-ninety-second (692) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to repost and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out my author website for the rest of my published fiction and nonfiction works.
Follow me here!
