General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIt always comes down to you. There's no escaping it.
No matter what the subject is, ultimately it comes down to how you are and what you decide.
You're an environmentalist? Well, what do you drive? What do you eat? What do you wear? If everything close to you is perfect, how do you communicate with those around you?
You're a labor activist? What do you buy? Where do you buy it? Where do you live? Who do you associate with?
You're a pro-choice activist? What words do you use for your views and the opponents? How do you act when challenged? Are you defensive or proud? Do you wait to be attacked, or do you invade the thought-space of those who hate you?
You don't have to be perfect, just recognize that it's usually more effective to increase your own perfection than to belittle another's.
That's all freedom is, and all it ever was: A bunch of people choosing to be free. Choosing to do right. It was never about anyone else.
In a world of untold multitudes of slaves and savages, 20,000 or so Athenians changed humankind forever by choosing to think and make conscious decisions rather than blindly following the same old currents of ageless time. It didn't last long, but it didn't have to - their choice then changed everything forever.
Don't doubt that at any time, anywhere, you can make a choice that changes everything, forever. Because it's true. You may not want it to be true, but it is.
The smallest choice can be the lever that moves worlds.
Knowing that for a fact is what separates the great people of history from the anonymous hordes lost in infinite shadow.
And what separates a progressive from a conservative.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)If people put one tenth the effort into improving themselves as they put into trying to improve other people, the world would be much improved.
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)what did the Athenians choose? If I was taught this way back I forgot it. Sincere request. Thank you.
True Blue Door
(2,969 posts)They chose to think about things, to question, to imagine.
Not many of the thoughts of modern life failed to occur to at least one of them, and that's merely the written record that survives.
Given the world they lived in, that's unimaginably heroic.
They inherited nothing but superstitions, fables, some simple laws. They were surrounded by a world of the same.
The world they gave back was very different.