This week I went and saw the latest, greatest, action packed, CGI, multimillion dollar superman movie: Man of Steel. I have to say I was pretty impressed. I could practically feel my nerdy self shiver with excitement as superman flew through the sky at what seemed to be mach ten speeds (terribly forgetting the laws of physics). One of the scenes in the movie that most stuck to me, was when Russell Crowe’s character (Superman’s Father) explains to Superman where he came from and the fate of his home planet Krypton. As Russell Crowe explains Kryptonians were once a glorious race that created and accomplished much. But abandoned their age of exploration and slowly stripped their planet bare, ultimately resulting in the planet’s destruction and the destruction of their race.
In a bluntly overt sense, the film draws striking parallels with the real world. We have abandoned our space program; stripping NASA of its funding and absorbing it into the US air force. We are consuming our planet’s resources and polluting the planet at alarming rates as CO2 levels are at their highest in the last 10,000 years. We are increasingly becoming more and more obsessed with “stuff “ and consumerism. We allow targeted commercials and ads convince us we cannot be happy unless we have more “stuff “ and money. We concern ourselves not with the direction our world is veering toward, but analyze whether or not Kim Kardashian really has butt implants. We spend all day behind screens socializing with people we’ve never met in person, but don’t find it strange that when we sit next to people on buses we do so in perfect silence.
Biodiversity has dropped 50% in the last 100 years, the biggest drop since the last great extinction and we have cut down over 75% of the world’s forests. Nevermind the slew of social problems ranging world hunger to holocausts. In the midst of these problems we find our representatives in government (the people whose jobs are to solve these problems) in deadlock, unable to compromise or understand the other, as their positions and opinions are bought out by corporate lobbyists and greed. The truth is no law or policy will change us, only we can change us.
But what do we do?
What can one person actually do about this?
See that pale blue dot, that’s us from over 3.7 billion miles away. All of those things I listed above that seemed so insurmountable, in fact everything that has ever happened in all of human history has happened on that small speck, in an ocean of darkness. Looking at it it’s hard to imagine the universe and all that inhabit it are made for that one speck of blue. Or further yet for a certain shade of one of the millions of creatures that inhabit that small speck of blue. Our world and our problems can seem so big when only perceived through our own eyes, but in the perspective of the universe they are as insignificant as a speck of sand.
From here you have two options.
1.You can feel tiny and insignificant. You can forget everything you’ve just read and continue on with your life. With luck you’ll find a job most likely in some corporate office, pushing papers and using your talents to make the person at the top richer and be paid yourself a small fraction of what you make for the company. You can carry on turning your head away from the truths of our society, by constantly telling yourself "there's nothing I alone can do, I should just focus on what I need to get by" and "eventually someone will do something about." Just don't be surprised when nothing does.
2. You can set your self a worthy goal. Imagine if you worked not to make the rich richer but to help others and make the world a better place. I know it sounds idyllic and nonsensical but imagine if everyone who only cared about themselves suddenly changed their outlook. If everyone helps each other everyone wins. You deserve more of an existence than an office job, happiness isn't found in a new car or status symbol, true happiness is found in helping others, in giving back and feeling worth.
We all have hard lives, so instead of just focusing on just getting by, help others get by and then you wont’ have to worry so much about yourself. Everyone has the potential to do great things just as much as everyone has the potential to do horrible things. If we align with our potential we can continue doing marvelous things (like curing cancer)
Like Gandhi once said: "Be the change you want to see in world"
So how can you make a difference? here's a start:
Volunteer: There are few better ways to find happiness and appreciate life than volunteering. When you really see those who truly have nothing, it puts your life into perspective.
SF Environment
California Student Sustainability Coalition (CSSC)
FarmGram
Earth911
Project Open Hand
St. Anthony's Foundation
Read the news: Knowing what's going on in the world couldn't be more important. In America our news stations stay away from things going on elsewhere in the world. There is more going on in the world then just us, and reading the news is a way to stay better connected to others.
My Personal Favorite is https://www.google.com/news?vanilla=1
Reading the news I know can sometimes be boring, if you are the type of person who bores easy or just likes to laugh you might like the The Daily Show or The Colbert Report
Advocate sustainability
In the world of Capitalism, talks about sustaining our planet fall wayside to talks of profit and high yields. If we continue down this path we will undoubtedly face bigger problems in the future. Making a sustainable world for future generations isn’t just a choice, it’s a necessity.
SF State has a ton of sustainably and environmentally conscious programs:
To read about each one click the links below:
Enjoy life With the average work week increasing along with the average retirement age we are working more than ever before. With that we don’t spend as much time doing what we want to do whether that be spending time with family, playing or singing to music, or just enjoying the gift of life. Find time in your day to day just to have fun.
I feel like this quote applies well: “The most dangerous risk of all – The risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later”
Fun reads and Views
