How to Save the World

You can’t.

Let’s get that out of the way.

At least not in the sense that we understand the phrase “saving the world.” In this piece I will argue that Americans have been given a skewed sense of personal agency and of how progress is made in society. We are therefore stifled from doing ANYTHING despite our dire need to do SOMETHING as a collective.

Western culture, neoliberalism, and the Capitalist goal of amassing and hoarding wealth has taught us that massive, influential change typically stems from determined individual action.

Think about Bruce Willis taking down a whole regiment of German terrorists in Die Hard.

Or how the USA lends an almost theological quality to figures like Abe Lincoln or George Washington, crediting overwhelming societal changes to their individual action.

There is much less celebration around the collective mobilization of the country during the war effort in the 1940s, or the massive success of the Works Progress Administration in providing infrastructure and public services to the country after the Great Depression.

Our culture’s emphasis on the Great Man theory, the thought that excellent individuals are the avenue for progress – a capitalist bastardization of Nietzsche’s Superman philosophy – is damaging to the psyche of every person and therefore, to the psyche of the collective.

This individualistically driven cultural mythos sets an UNATTAINABLE standard for excellence. You are either a change maker, or you aren’t – You are connected to the “powers that be” or you are simply at the whim of their actions.

This line of thought inherently lends itself to a unique kind of inescapable nihilism, distinct from the traditional philosophy.

Nihilism in its purest form shows you that life is meaningless and therefore you should endeavor to identify a purpose that you deeply resonate with; the choice it reveals allows a sort of beauty in existential thought.

American Capitalist Nihilism, HOWEVER, teaches its subjects (us for the most part) that not only is life pointless, but also that RESISTANCE is pointless.

It is more like determinism in its lack of freedom.

Sure, you can buy secondhand but SHEIN’s market value grows every year. Sure, you can go vegan to protest the moral catastrophe and horrific environmental impact of the meat industry, but that won’t stop Wendy’s from selling nuggets and a burger for $4. Sure, you can post online about environmentalism but that won’t stop the billionaires who own those platforms from riding their private jets to attend a sports game or a musical.

Nothing you do will stop the microplastics from swimming around in your blood.

American Capitalist Nihilism would like you to believe that there is no hope.

By simply existing, you seem to be condemned to participating in a fundamentally broken and misguided economic ideology.

I feel this frequently and it suppresses my willingness to get involved in my community and serve those in need. If there is no way out why waste time trying to break the lock of my prison cell?

However, I argue that this is the WRONG perspective to hold, despite the enormous cultural pressure to assimilate to this fatalistic philosophy.

It is certainly a CONVENIENT perspective if you’re looking to deepen your cognitive dissonance. Accepting that everything is fucked and you’re hopeless to change it is the easiest philosophy to adopt If you want to be comfortable and sad until death knocks your door down.

That being said, if you want to be uncomfortable but ENLIGHTENED during your short stay on Earth, you may want to look at the agency you do have. We do have some agency to inspire change if we want to.

The funny thing is, I’m not even necessarily arguing against the popular deterministic logic discussed above. It is probably true that the corporate oligarchy has amassed so much power and wealth that anyone looking to fight it head-on would probably lose.

What I am arguing though, is that approach to understanding the world misses the point.

What are corporations?

What are these entities guiding our society toward ecological and social collapse like a heat-seeking missile?

They are, SIMPLY, a collection of people who all operate in a specific role to further a collective goal. From Janitor to CFO, each person manages their niche and perpetuates the whole.

This COLLECTIVE EFFORT is the power of corporations, not some ethereal quality of their CEO.

Now, maybe you can see the genius of the proposition that individuals are the makers of great societal change.

If power is accumulated through the action of many under a corporate banner, but the general populace is stuck thinking that individuals are the genesis of meaningful change, then the public becomes PARALYZED.

They go to work, spending their days contributing to shareholder value and feeling as if they have NO agency to change the current state of affairs.

HOW SAD!

We participate daily in structures that deplete our natural world but feel too insignificant to assume a similar position in the fight against the erosion of life and culture. It is deeply depressing and deeply understandable simultaneously.

The tasks to survive are simple. Get a job, get money, protect your family.

The tasks to save the world appear insurmountable. Start a movement, change the present socio-economic structure and ideology.

Easy, right?

No

Just like I said.

How can you save the world?

You can’t – You can protect your family and friends but you can’t save the world.

HOWEVER

You participate in the world’s degradation by clocking into a mundane 9-5, why can’t you participate at the same scale for some better cause?

Go plant vegetables at a community garden. Attend city hall meetings and share your perspective. Go pick trash around your community. Volunteer for an anti-status quo candidate. Give out food at a food bank. Help your neighbor with his house repairs. Install a solar panel. Raise money for reputable charities. Do what you can do to reduce your carbon footprint. Buy less, covet more. Argue with your friends when they get too cynical or seem to be acting unethically. Sit with your friend in crisis. Hug your mother. Tell your sibling it will be ok.

DO WHAT YOU CAN.

As human beings, we only have so much capacity, that is READILY apparent.

But if you let that fold you, you will spend your days contributing your bandwidth to the unravelling of a cooperative society and healthy planet.

We are limited to incremental contributions to ANYTHING – do you want that to stop you from being part of something good?

Does not being perfect and the impossibility of perfection mean that you shouldn’t try and be BETTER?

Don’t fade into obscure Buddhist Nihilism.

If we are really at the end of history and all the negative forces in the world result in the unraveling of society then it will be because a bunch of random actions and patterns converged to make it so. The same will be true if we end up turning a page and creating a better future - we are too small to have the answers, too limited to create a grand plan, but we can fill a role , god damnit.

We are oversaturated and overwhelmed – we can’t focus and it’s hard to see a way to help. I understand but I want this to be a call to action for anyone reading this that feels the same way. Please find some type of positive change to affect and commit yourself to it.

I concede this is a privileged perspective; if someone constantly burdened by survival, collective action is probably the last thing on mind. But if you have time to think critically about our world, then you have a choice: cynicism or optimism. Neither choice is necessarily correct but at least optimism doesn’t condemn you to an abyss of hopelessness; it opens your eyes to what good you can demonstrate to the people and communities around you. I need to do better, I implore you to do better, and at least we can all go down swinging rather than bed rotting.