We all would love to do good in society. We all want to save the world and shape it in a way that fits our interests and passions. What we see as improvement could be what someone else sees as an utter setback. What we see as right could be what someone else sees as completely wrong.
It’s like an endless cycle that never really ends for better or worse. It’s easy to tell other people what they’re doing wrong and not look in the mirror at what you could possibly do better yourself. It’s easier to be outraged at the atrocities of the world and harder to look at how wrong you could be as a whole.
For me, I’m no different. I have my political views, and I have my personal views on how the world is and how the world should be. A lot of the stuff that people view to be right is not exactly set in stone or necessarily in black or white. There are a lot of grey areas that can be open to interpretation.
For example, climate change is a big topic these days and something that I personally feel needs to be addressed. But it’s easier said than done. It’s easy to tell people to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy. And in theory that sounds great.
But how are we going to do all that when many people’s livelihoods depend on working for fossil fuel companies? Are we asking these companies to just go bankrupt and to just switch over to renewables at the tip of a cap?
It’s not that easy. So many things need to be done. We need to retrain people. We need to figure out how to give these people new livelihoods. And they need to be internally persuaded (not outwardly forced) to change their positions on a sensitive topic.
Or what about gun control? It’s easy to tell people that they need more gun control in their lives. And personally, I am a firm believer in this as well. But how are you going to do that when many people’s livelihoods depend on selling guns? For better or worse, guns are an ingrained culture in the American life.
These are all sensitive topics. And I’m sure if I express my personal opinions strongly enough on a public platform, I will receive outcry and backlash (under the assumption that I have thousands of followers of course, which I don’t).
It’s just that all these ideals of changing the world for good don’t come easily. It’s simply not that easy. To enforce greater gun control. To switch to renewable energy. To provide more funding to education systems. It’s not as easy as one, two, three.
And maybe that’s for the better? Because part of what makes this country great is its inherent need for debate on topics. The ability for two sides to fight for what they think is right can lead to a lot of partisan bickering. But it can also lead to healthy checks and balances which make things more evenly distributed amongst the population.
I need to admit openly that I am for renewable energy. And I am for gun control. And I am all for saving the environment. And for greater global cooperation amongst the world.
But I do understand how many people can feel differently from what I personally stand for. And that is okay. I understand that the world is not a set of black and white principles, but a grand mixture of lots of shades of grey. Many things are open to interpretation. And often than not, different sides need to fight on the battlefield (figuratively speaking) to get their message across and their opinions felt.
It’s a different type of battle ground but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. I must say that it probably wouldn’t be good if the country just suddenly switched to universal health care. Or if the country suddenly banned all automatic rifles. Or if it just dusted away fossil fuels for clean energy. After all, we still need to drive cars, right? Often, slow and steady progression is probably the best-case scenario.
I’m not an expert in any of these fields. But I do feel that the “good” things in life don’t come easy. And often it takes years and sometimes decades of struggle to see a vision that you hope for come to fruition.
Many of these things that I believe to be “good” for society can hopefully become reality someday. I hope that the world takes climate change more seriously. But I also understand how a sudden switch to renewable energy can adversely affect the daily lives of so many people around the world. I hope that we can take gun control more seriously. But I also do understand how a shift in that directly can negatively affect certain people as well.
It’s sometimes not the most popular topic to talk about. But life is often a swath of grey, where victory doesn’t necessarily mean that one party is absolutely right, but that they were simply more able to get their personal opinion and message across to the masses.
I am very grateful to be living in a first world nation. And I do realize that improvement comes with constant struggle to fight an uphill battle against the other party that some may deem to be “immoral” or “incorrect”. However, that other side is simply doing their part in the grand scheme of life and trying their best to enforce their own morals and beliefs onto the world.
It’s a constant evolution. And who am I to say how everything will eventually end up and develop. But this uncertainty is probably for the best.
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