David wrote:
Do you need better leaders? Do people need more information? Do they need a change of perspective? Or does their mood need to be changed?

And then on a practical level (and I suppose this is really the question), for whatever needs to be changed, can people willfully change it in an effective way, or is it something that simply either will change or will not change? So it may be that if the important thing is more "the mood of the people" that we can't change it as easily as if it's an issue of knowledge. It's much easier to educate people on particular facts than it is to change their mood or perspective, I think.

The reason this question is important in my mind is, let's say you're worried about global warming (which you, Brian, are). It seems to me that there's very little you can do by yourself. By your own estimation of the problem, you need people around the globe to change how they're doing things. So my question translates into this: Can you change the way people around the globe do things, and if so, how?


I appreciate these questions. I typically look to history with an idealistic lens for the answers. Would Hitler have come to power with out the Treaty of Versailles? If an equally charismatic leader came about at that time could he have instead called for a national push toward beating the British by working harder? Was Gandhi the right person at the right time or just the right person? A question you often hear political pundits pose is would Obama be president without George W Bush?

(I ask these questions not necessarily to solve Global warming or poverty, but to prevent or reverse this: http://www.livevideo.com/video/1EFA0174 ... intro.aspx )

Clearly you need a problem that is serious enough to invoke change. If there were not British people in India then Gandhi would like kinda of ridiculous going on a hunger strike to get rid of them. Though once the problem is addressed, how can you mobilize popular opinion and societal change? I believe the ingredients are basically just an ingenious argument that both shakes peoples current foundations yet connects with them and a platform: a book that sells, a person who is listened to, an organisation with influence and respect, to get people to give an open mind to the argument.

I am trying to write a novel that both espouses my beliefs and is entertaining/interesting/humorous. In the broadest of terms I believe the problem is glorified ignorance, selfishness, a lack of a longer perspective, and apathy to the massive problems facing mankind. I believe the wealthiest nation in history is capable of so so much more and that we should both hold ourself and others to higher "elitists" expectations.

So what is my tangible cure to tell people who want to change the society...

I have yet to come up with an ingenious argument or solution for that question other then writing this book about a cool guy who befriends a celebrity baseball player. Ideally I would like to see a national dialog that gets the same public outcry that vilified Michael Vick for not escaping a dogfighting culture, vilify people who can not escape conforming to a culture of self indulgence. Further a dialog that addresses the real concern of the more efficient and forward thinking Chinese overtaking us and what that would mean (Phillip was leery the David Brooks article that posed that question, but I loved that article). You get these cultural debates which change culture through one of the attention getting platforms I previously mentioned.

A culture obsessed with "freedom" to be as dumb and lazy and selfish as we want, is hard to combat.

Do you think my description and kind solution of the problem at hand is the hyperbolic ramblings of a naive young man?