Most people I know fill their lives with tiny gestures toward improving the world -- they recycle, eat organic, buy local, support fair trade, and bring their own bags to the supermarket.
Unfortunately, these are the good intentions that pave the road to hell. The road to heaven is a good deal more rigorous.
Below the fold, I will describe why the focus on tending one's own garden is wrong, what expenditures of our life-energy would in fact be significant, and how we can successfully encourage our well-intentioned friends to face the less comfortable and more difficult task of making a real difference.
What Matters
Most of us well-intentioned people realize that the focus of our energy should be on everyone else, not just on ourselves. But temptation lures us into the delusion that by tending to our own habits, which at least we can control, the common interest will be advanced, as if guided by an invisible hand.
The most that can be said of such individual acts is that (1) they do no harm, and (2) if everyone did such things, then the world would indeed be a better place.
And that's the key: changing everyone's behavior, not just our own.
I agree that changing one person's behavior (our own) is a start, and that modeling good behavior can influence others. But if the goal is to change our collective behavior, then starting with our own behavior is spectacularly unambitious, especially if the path from the solitary act to massive social change consists mostly of fervant hope, and not an executable plan.
Changing The World
Once we give up the delusion that our driving a hybrid car will eliminate foreign oil dependence (instead, increase automobile efficiency standards for everyone, and provide public transit options for everyone)...
Once we give up the delusion that our refusal to use styrofoam peanuts will not reduce our landfills (instead, mandate recycling for everyone, and make it convenient for everyone)...
Once we give up the delusion that my installing solar panels will help bring down prices (instead, create a dramatically larger demand with government purchasing on behalf of everyone, and subsidies that allow everyone to go solar)...
Once we give up the delusion that our buying fair trade products will eliminate poverty and empower local producers in third world countries (instead, eliminate the global economic structures that reward corporations for impoverishing everyone)...
Once we give up our self-centered delusions, what should we do instead?
Step 1: Identify the few actions that most interest us, be it water conservation, protecting migrant workers, economic justice, or whatever ultimate goal is to be achieved by one's good behavior.
Step 2: Determine the most effective ways to advance that goal. This will involve research. You might end up with something relatively simple, like enforcing existing clean air laws on a nearby factory, or something more ambitious, like making your country a leader in foreign aid and making sure that the aid helps people, instead of getting sucked back into corporations. Or ending your country's consumption of the fruits of sweatshop labor. Or ensuring that none of your country's laws violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Step 3: Join with others to formulate a plan to achieve that goal. Whatever be your favored goal, others share it. Find them. Together, you can educate voters, influence legislation, run for local office, pressure corporations, draft policy documents, motivate others, or whatever it takes to effect real change.
Joining with others is crucial because we may be individually enlightened, but we are only collectively powerful. Search for your colleagues -- they are in local organizations, or local chapters of national organizations. They are in Unitarian churches. Find them online in blog communities. Find them in colleges. Find them in book clubs. Find them lurking shyly in your own neighborhood. Find them.
Changing Ourselves
The rule for yourself is simple: stop making excuses. If you don't have time, make time. If your job doesn't let you, then change jobs. Don't let anything get in the way of transforming your life toward greater significance.
When it comes to others, however, the discussion is often difficult. I encourage you to include in the comments your own experiences and advice. My experience is that when well-intentioned people are confronted with the obvious truth that the "Fifty Simple Things You Can Do" will not in fact save the earth, people get angry and defensive. They do not wish to know that their actions are impotent, or that more is required of them than they realized.
There seem to be three types. First, there are those who incorrectly believe that isolated, personal acts will save the earth. This is the easiest group to address, because they are committed to change, and simply need more information about the effects of their current actions and what might be more effective options.
Second, there are those who incorrectly believe that if they do their share, then they are not to blame if everyone else destroys the earth by not following suit. This group is more difficult to address, because their commitment to improving the world is conditional. They are not willing to do more than others must also do. For these people, it is best to avoid the moral argument, and focus on the end result. There is no satisfaction in the bumpersticker, "I Did Not Vote For This!" Even if they will apply only limited effort, that effort should be applied where it will have the most effect.
Third, there are those who actually are not committed to improving the world if it interferes with how they already wanted to spend their time and money. I find discussions with these people unproductive.
Just to be clear, I am not proposing that we stop recycling or buying locally. I am not saying that those who drink fair trade coffee or eat vegan are bad. I'm just saying it's not enough, and no one should lose sight of that important fact.
What do you think?