We Have the Power

I’ve had this blog entry by No Impact Man on my list of “to blog about” for a couple of days now, but I didn’t quite know what to do with it.  I mean, I didn’t want to just re-hash it, but I felt like I wanted to think about it and say something, not just link to it.

Today, I realized that it relates to my life more than I knew at first.

No Impact Man writes:  “To change people’s values, so the shrinks say, you change their behavior. You don’t barrage them with ideas and cause information overload. You don’t tell them their existing values are wrong and get their backs up.”

This intrigued me, because I frequently bemoan the fact that it’s really hard, if not impossible, to change people’s minds.

He goes on to describe an organization that gets people involved in a small way in oyster restoration in Chesapeake Bay.  The project’s impact on the bay is relatively small, but it also has an effect on people’s values:

“But whatever their reasons for volunteering, once Kim gets them restoring the shellfish, their values start to change. He doesn’t ask them if they want to save the world. He just gets them to save the world.

And before you know it, that’s what they want.”

And that, my friends, is the power to change the world.

I’ve spent a good deal of my adult life believing that I did not have that power.  I didn’t make the grade.  I graduated from college with good grades, but without doing anything outstanding, and went to work in a series of office and summer camp jobs.  I didn’t manage to make a steady career out of either.  I thought maybe I could write, but decided I wasn’t really good enough at that, either.  Meanwhile, friends and siblings were doing things with their lives…but not me.  I wasn’t doing anything important, or anything world-changing, and I always felt that I should be.

I’m not the only one.  Many people are dissatisified with their lives, and many feel powerless to change anything in the world.  Global warming?  The government?  What can we really do?  We’re not the ones with money and position.

Within the past year, I’ve seen what we can do.  We’re not taking over Congress (yet), but I’ve seen (and helped) a group of adult Girl Scouts succeed in saving the local Girl Scout resident camp from being sold, meanwhile developing a working relationship with executives and board members in the Girl Scout organization.  I’ve seen bloggers and techies rally together for fun (Portland Pie-Off!) and business (like the current attempt to save ORBlogs).  I’ve met people who, rather than waiting to be discovered or accepted by existing organizations, stepped out to create blogs, start-ups, podcasts, etc. And on a personal level, I am finally getting articles accepted and published, and I’m believing in myself more and more.

We make a difference.  This is the source of real change: getting people involved in things at a local level.  A change in leadership at the top may help, but it doesn’t make people change their minds and habits.  Legislation doesn’t change people’s minds and habits.  It’s acting and interacting with people on a local level that does it.

Is this not a way forward to change minds about climate change? Might engaging citizens–actually getting them involved in volunteerism for any one of their diverse motivations–be a way to change people’s minds and values?

–No Impact Man