Change the World?

Haha, really?

Change the World?

I've got a favorite movie that starred John Travolta as George Malley in Phenomenon. The closing bit of music was Change the World done by Eric Clapton. In the movie, at least, character George did in fact change the world for at least the people around him, and showed he was the kind of guy we would want making changes.

But what about the rest of us? Just think about the person who is physically nearest to you at this moment. If there are others in your immediate area, consider quite randomly, two or three others. Of course I don't know you, or any of the people around you. But if your world is anything like mine, I wouldn't really want anyone I've ever known to have the power to make changes that directly affected me, or my life, or the lives of my family members.

That leads to my point, which is that there are people doing just that. Not just my life and my family are being affected, of course, but you are, too, and so is everyone else. For example, there are people whose job it is to conduct research to cure or to prevent diseases. For every one of those, there are many more people who are accepting regular paychecks to find new ways to increase profit for the company that employs them. They see nothing wrong with that, either. Examples of the result: Diesel fuel, or number 2 fuel oil, a product of a lower grade than gasoline, was once cheaper than gasoline. But the furor over higher petroleum prices comes from the masses of consumers who buy gasoline every day; so now trucking and home-heating bear a far higher increase over the value of the product. Insurance companies now use your credit score, as if they were banks, to set the rates you will pay. Thus they have become part of the economic system that works to keep the poor right where they are.

Of course we need world changes, but I am not a trusting person. I'm sure that first came from politics, not just the national or state or local office-holding kind, but the workplace and neighborhood kind as well. I've not always fared well, even in domestic situations. Attitude adjustments may help, but very usually, the compromises one must make are to the benefit of someone other than oneself.

That brings me to the conclusion that most of the world-changes that occur are not in my best interest either. It seems reasonable to assume they aren't in yours. "The game" of life is something we all play whether we wish to or not. But it is worse than tiresome to see others winning, while we lose. We get all incensed when a legislature works out a pay raise for its members, and we should. But what about the electric company (or any other utility)? The largest electric supplier in my state effectively owns the public utilities commission. Your cell phone carrier votes itself a raise, changes terms as they see fit and insert charges wherever they wish. And on and on. They all do it, because they can. As a result, the cost of a cell phone connection runs at least five times what it needs to be, to allow the main carrier to operate at a profit. Manufactured goods, the cost is right about where it should be. The problem is, manufacturing has been outsourced to China and third-world nations where the workers make pennies an hour. I don’t want the cost of those items reduced to reflect that, I want the workers paid a living wage.

So it comes down to this: For the great bulk of us, winning the game is simply getting to the point where we have secured the ability to make changes to our own personal existence that can actually stay. It can be a real struggle, and I think it's a struggle that is much more often lost than won.

I will leave you with one thought. It may sound cynical, but I don't think it is at all. I offer it to your personal benefit, as I am one who would actually try to make changes that are beneficial, proving to at least myself that there are such people.

The thought: Take care of yourself. Nobody else will.

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