There are truisms that we too often ignore — and yet we believe them. Let’s start with this favorite.
You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics. — Charles Bukowski
Why is this true? Consider how human beings work. We relate to each other personally. To sacrifice ourselves for the betterment of another human being, we have to see them, touch them, feel empathy for them, and love them.
Have you ever wondered why armies will stand and fight to the bitter end? Do you think people risk their lives for a noble cause or for family, friends, and the buddies who fight at their side?
I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself. — Aldous Huxley
That person we each love first and most readily is that person we see in the mirror each morning. It is ourselves and truly only ourselves that we might change and save. Yet, how many of us diligently and relentlessly work to change others!
How do you change someone? You must convince them to change themselves.
For the hand that rocks the cradle, is the hand that rules the world. — William Wallace in this poem
For good or evil, our parents molded each of us. No one, no organization, unless it steals an infant from its mother, can shape a child into an adult with greater effect. Because they love their child, mothers will spend hours nursing their child, caring for their child, and striving to rear their child into a strong adult.
Our mothers (and, yes, our fathers too) spent hours, days and years convincing each of us that the person in the mirror should care for and be concerned about others besides himself. Our parents began their teaching by loving us. From the example they each gave us we learned how to love. So it is that our mother’s and our father’s imprints are left upon each of us until the end our days.
For good or evil, others want that power to shape and mold another. That is why governments work ceaselessly to insinuate themselves into the rearing of children. That is why children are required to go to school. That is why lobbies spend millions pressuring politicians over what is taught in school. That is why so many advertisements are directed at children.
But governments do not and cannot love children or anyone else. Only individual human beings can love and care for each other. That is why an efficient bureaucracy can destroy the world multitudes at a time, and that is why the world can only be saved by each of us one person at a time.
