You can't change the world because you can't change human nature." That's the discouraging criticism I received from fellow classmates last fall when I tried to push my vision for a more equitable future in American Political Philosophy.
Their argument went something like this: Humans are inherently self-interested, and as such will never be willing to give up spacious homes, flashy cars, high salaries and other effects associated with their particular level of comfort to help others they don't even know. Sure, they may donate some money and maybe even a little bit of their time to help those in need, but when it comes to forsaking the possessions they've worked hard to earn, most people simply won't do it, even if it means that more resources would become available for those with little to call their own. People are programmed to provide first and foremost for their personal happiness, and no matter how hard we try, we simply cannot change that fact.
I agree: It's impossible to convince people to hand over their comfort and happiness to somebody else. Not only is it impossible, but also impractical, for it would serve no good for everyone to have enough if nobody was happy. What we can do, however, rather than force altruism upon ourselves is to redefine what makes us happy -- a much simpler task, in my view, than trying to reprogram human nature.
The way things stand now, from the time we enter preschool we are socialized to excel, to discover our talents and to try to achieve personal perfection. We can feel that pressure now as we're pushed to plow through school and land the highest-paying job we can find. Our society informs us that we will find happiness in distinguished careers and large homes filled with fancy gadgets, and we're so busy scrambling to get there that most of us never take the time to sit down for a minute and figure out if that's really what will make us happy.
What if instead of emphasizing personal achievement, society told us that we would find joy in helping and caring for others? The human race would achieve milestones in the struggle for peace, equity and security, for if every person achieved happiness by making others happy, we would all be looking out for each other's well being -- and honestly, I don't see how such a system could fail.
Instilling this value in human society is the only true way to ever achieve harmony in this world. Political and economic systems never will, for no matter how many ways we try to distribute and manage the world's resources, as long as people continue to fight for personal property more than they fight for each other, history's vicious cycle of war and revolt will live on.
How do we bring about this new revolution of values? It starts with each one of us. It starts with us taking a moment to think about our own values and pursuits, and to consider if we are on the right path. It starts with us teaching the upcoming and future generations that fulfillment is found in lending a hand to one another, in truly loving our neighbors as we do ourselves. If we all were to take a break from our hurried pursuit of degrees and careers to think about it, we most likely would find that we really do get much more pleasure from putting smiles on the faces of our friends and family than we do from anything that our consumer society could ever produce.
Change that lasts is born at the level of the individual. It happens when we refuse to neglect those "if only" things: Those little things that "if only" everybody did them, maybe it would make a difference. Just because not everybody does them doesn't give us the excuse not to do them either. As Mahatma Gandhi recognized, we must be the change we wish to see in the world.
To quote another famous voice: Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, "The power of love as the basis of a state has never been tried." I'm willing to bet that if we try it, instead of forever struggling to reform our political and economic systems, we really will make this world a better place -- without having to suppress our inherent desire to seek personal fulfillment. For if we all look out for one another, we can't go wrong. It sounds idealistic, but the only reason it's idealistic instead of realistic is because it's constantly dismissed as such -- but I know that enough of you have shared this thought with me at some point or another. If instead of giving up on it, we hold onto it, we can really set the wheels of change in motion.
