“If one person makes a change it makes no difference.”
I’ve heard that a lot, and it’s bullshit.
A friend said to me the other day “You do realise that if you do this it won’t make any difference to the rest of the world.”
Oh but it will.
If everyone had that attitude, nothing would ever change.
That cliché about changing your little corner of the world – it’s true. It’s plainly obvious in little things – like my generation is a lot more conscious about eating healthy and environmentally sound foods than the previous generation. That’s just a lot of people changing their corner of the world.
Another friend said to me “We’re lied to, you know – we’re told to stop doing this and stop doing that, but it’s not us damaging the environment, it’s these big companies.”
“Well yes” I replied “But if you, say, stopped using plastics or palm oil or ate less beef – whatever you believe is right, and another person made that same decision, and another and another, eventually that would make a difference. These companies would be forced to change. Because the damaging things would be less in demand.”
You can’t force other people to make decisions, but you can make your own. And every right decision makes a difference.