The idea that only the most fit would be the ones who were most likely to survive long enough to reproduce was a beautiful idea for the time and what it was applied to, the non-human animal kingdom. The problem is that it was wrong even then. Oh, don’t worry, there is already lots of scholarly writing about this from people all over the world and I am not going into any of that. What I want to talk about is adaptability.
The human animal is the most adaptable creature that we know and at first that sounds like a really good thing however it is really not. We have built up our environment in which we live to unsustainable levels of noise, light, chemical and social pollution. We have created so many layers of interconnected problems that solving them becomes a near impossible task that requires the dismantling of other systems along the way. We call these “wicked problems” because of how complex they to remedy.
The beginning to solving many of our problems is so simple and unsexy that it gets lost in all the noise. The best solution gets buried because we keep playing the same game even though we keep losing. People give up by saying, “We can not win because the other side has so much more money than we do,” and then they give up.
I’m sorry, giving up is not adapting. Giving up is hiding under your own personal rock and waiting to be stepped on.
Adapting is not doing the same thing again and again even though you lose every time. Adapting is changing your actions and the way you think to better fit you situation. So, you can’t compete against the truckloads of money the other side has, stop trying to. There is another way. We can not spend our way out of our problems, anyway.
What can compete with money? Think about what money is actually buying. It’s buying exposure. It’s getting a message in front of people and taking advantage of our own biases to get us to act a certain way. You know what else can do that even better?
People. Personal contact. Actually sitting down with our friends, family and neighbors and having discussions, learning about each other, our needs and working things out.
Shocking, I know! The solution to nearly all our problems is communication. Not these cable news channels or social media platforms and many of these other things we have built up to shield ourselves from opinions that make us uncomfortable. Even this platform is flawed. How many people who don’t know me actually read this? Sometimes even 50% of the people that get sent the email actually open and maybe read this.
It takes more than a like or even a share to make a community. Dropping a check into the mail is a lazy person’s way to show support a campaign you claim to support. Of course, not everyone can be out at meetings or knocking on doors but there are many ways we can help.
Even though I have been ignored, threatened and actively fought against I still want to try and make the world a better place. Maybe because I have seen just how messed up communities get if they do not work together for the greater good.
We are not ever going to get rid of greedy people but we can take away their power. How? By refusing to give them what they want. It doesn’t matter if it is money, fame or green M&Ms.
Cooperation is still the best survival strategy. Life isn’t something any of us win. I try my best to help make people’s lives better while I am here even though there are many people I do not like. Why? I don’t know.
Perhaps I believe that we can do so much better than we are. We have so much potential but so much of it is wasted on hate, greed and the supression of others.
Additionally, while I have been mulling over this post for a while, what got me to write it now was thinking about the four friends and acquaintances I have lost in the past 8 years. All of these people died young, or younger than they should have, because of social or environmental factors which could have been avoided if we as a species actually cared more about each other. Every decision we make has consequences, somewhere. Remember, life changes and life changes us, if we want it to or not.