On Making a Difference,
Recently I have been experiencing a tremendous amount of sadness and frustration surrounding the cultural norms and expectations of our country and current generation. I wouldn’t say that this is a new feeling by any stretch of the imagination. However, I feel like the more I know and learn – the more helpless I perceive that I am in bringing about change. This feeling originates from the idea that “knowledge is power” (scientia potentia est), an idea that came from the philosophical work of Sir Francis Bacon.
Despite its origins, I am feeling an incredible, visceral, passion toward wanting to “do something” about the world we live in. To influence our culture; to make a difference in some way. This passion does not go away after getting a long night of sleep, nor does it waver when I am overwhelmed with responsibilities. It sticks with me, as if it was built into my very DNA.
It isn’t that the world is getting any worse, necessarily. In fact, in many ways it is the same broken world it always has been. Ecclesiastes speaks of there being nothing new under the sun. And in many ways I think Ray Kurzweil, the brilliant futurologist, is echoing that idea when he recently said that “The world isn’t getting worse, but our information is getting better”.
My focus, here, is not on the specific ways that our culture is failing us (and we are failing our culture) but rather on my personal pursuit toward making a difference.
Right now, these questions have been swirling in my head: But what, really, can I do? And who am I that I think I can do something? I do realize I have value – just as each of you reading this, has value. But I also recognize the realistic limitations that I have.
I am one of 319 million other people in the US. What I say, here, carries minimal value to you because I have no public influence. I am not a CEO and inventor like Elon Musk, an innovator like Steve Jobs, or a civil rights activist like Rosa Parks or Martin Luther. I am not a celebrity or someone who aspires to be one. I am a person born into privilege: I am a Caucasian, American, middle class, educated, male. I attempt to live humbly and graciously but cannot deny that I am in constant need to check my privilege.
I am also broken. I am broken in the sense that while I strive toward self-actualization, attempt to follow the philosophy of virtue ethics, along with my own spiritual convictions – I am by no way perfect, or even close to it. I am a human, just like you. We exist in this world; I just think we can do a better job at it. At encouraging one another. At creating a community of people who are thriving. At focusing less on self, and more on other. At focusing on the people, we have in our lives, over the things that we have and want to get.
We have the ability to make a difference in these things. In our personal lives. I feel as if part of my struggle is recognizing that this is the extent to which I currently have influence. My sense of agency is limited, in a sense. Essentially, I am yearning for a place I am not yet ready to be. Although I have been unable to define or quantify this feeling for the last few weeks, I rediscovered Fredrick Nietzsche’s idea about “the will to power”.
Nietzsche describes the will to power as being humanities chief goal; to achieve the highest amount of “power” and therefore position in life. In line with the nuances of Nietzsche’s meaning – in my own life this is not a desire for any sort of selfish political power to control but rather a passion to be a positive influence in/on the philosophy of the future (macht vs. kraft).
Ultimately, making a difference is about recognizing our limitations, but not letting those limitations extinguish the passion inside of ourselves. We can yearn for the future but must be grounded in the present: we must make a difference in the ways that we are able to. The story is bigger than just me, and bigger than just you. There is a sacred story being told. And rather than simply creating and living our own individual stories, we need to join this sacred story in community, together.
