Don't get me wrong- all of the listed people did extremely admirable things and the world would be much different (in a negative way) had they not been successful. I'm just trying to say that they got lucky. Plenty of unnamed heroes have done admirable work but have not been recognized.
That's why changing the world needs to be about a vision. This vision needs to be shared with a large amount of people in order to better advance the vision into the realms of reality. This blog post is now going to act as a vehicle for my movement to change the world.
Below you will see an image. This image derived from the Leadershape conference I attended prior to returning to OSU this fall. The entire conference focused on vision: how do we, the leadershapers, see our perfect world? What's our vision? We displayed our visions during an exercise entitled: Headlines of Tomorrow. You can read my headline below:
My vision has base in the difficulty I had growing up (see blog #1). All of the struggles we face today have basis in lack of understanding. If only we, as a species, could come together and appreciate differing ideas, as long as they follow a genuine societal norm (killing for the sake of killing is an ideal that does not lead to a better, more well rounded society, but instead brings that society down). Our goal should be to come to understanding: appreciate differences and trying to challenge our beliefs. If we continually challenge our beliefs, we will become stronger and form more genuine thoughts, and with these more genuine thoughts, we produce more genuine actions.
Acceptance and tolerance ends hatred.
Stephen,
ReplyDeletewhile I do not disagree with your ideas about society in this post, I am left wondering though how you would want to go about creating the change you seek? In you're perfect situation, how would you coax people into becoming more receptive to everyones ideas and beliefs while still retaining their own?
Sure-
ReplyDeleteMy feeling is that there's a difference between being receptive to different beliefs and accepting different beliefs.
For instance, I may believe that hamburgers are by far the best cookout food ever- you may feel that hotdogs are by far the best cookout food ever (a stupid example but an easy one to use at 6 AM- obviously I'm referring to more controversial and troublesome world issues in my post). So we may discuss our personal opinions. While discussing, you can't disagree that my opinion is invalid. In fact, after discussing, you should be more open to reexamining hamburgers: perhaps even to the point that you try them again... 2 things are likely to happen: 1. you will reaffirm your belief that hot dogs are the best or 2. you will begin to question your love of hot dogs and may start to feel that both are good options...
stupid example but easy to use for this purpose. I just think that close-minded stubbornness and unwillingness to listen to new ideas holds back our society. You can't tell me I'm wrong for thinking a certain way: you may disagree but you cannot dismiss the validity of my opinion. Instead, the realization needs to be made that different opinions exist, and that's ok.
I can appreciate this mentality.
ReplyDeleteI am set in my ways, but I try to have the broadest perspective possible, and I believe there needs to be some mutual empathy between parties. And that goes for all cases.
But that's just my opinion. haha
I'm more of a hamburger person too