What Can We Really Do – To Make a Difference?

by Gerry Allan | May 31, 2023 | Future, Leadership | 0 comments

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
— Margaret Mead

“When I was in college, I wanted to be involved in things that would change the world.”
— Elon Musk

“The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do.”
— John McAfee

“The whole secret to our success is being able to con ourselves into believing that we’re going to change the world because statistically we are unlikely to do it.”
— Tom Peters

“It seems to me that any sensible person must see that violence does not change the world and if it does, then only temporarily.”
— Martin Scorsese

“For all history up to the end of the Cold War, summit meetings were historic and dramatic occasions, when leaders who controlled the destiny of much of the world met to change the world.”
— Conrad Black

“The greatest danger to our future is apathy.”
— Jane Goodall

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
— Mother Teresa

“No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
— Edmund Burke

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
— Anne Frank

So many action agendas out there are highly situation-specific. Each implicitly assumes that its particular situation will occur. But if not, it’s recommended actions will likely not work, or worse. The future we face is uncertain and threatening, to say the least. Given this reality, what can we really do to make a difference?

What does “make a difference” mean in practice? Dictionary says “… to do something that is important, something that helps people or makes the world a better place”. “Important” – to who? “World a better place” – define “better”?

Nice altruisms, but hard even to define, let alone put into practice. And do these refer to “me”, or perhaps just to some kind of “we”?

How often have you read something like “… we must do _____ (fill in the blank)”? Lots of important things need to be done, without question, in our increasingly crazy world and times, but just who is this “we”? Whoever “we” may actually be, this person or group is going to be awfully busy, starting yesterday.

Or does “we” actually mean “anybody but me”?

Even if “we” is a royal we nosism and refers to oneself, the underlying question for whoever-we-may-be is: what can we do about “whatever-we-are-supposed-to-do?” Of course, pointing out what needs to be done is important, but it remains theoretical without a practical action suggestion or imperative. And a courageous and willing “we” to act on it.

Being practical is not in any manner being defeatist. Much great danger can come from calls for impractical, impossible, or potentially damaging actions. There are, as you have surely noticed, a huge number of incredibly bad ideas for action out there, typically offered by non-participants and merely-observers. And of course by our rulers and ruler-wannabes.

We really do need to do a whole bunch of things

The need for actions of many kinds is starkly clear. So much is breaking or broken in our struggling world. Powerful people and organizations are hard at work creating even more damage that we will eventually have to add to our list of what needs fixing. By someone. This list seems quite overwhelming in any practical terms.

So, what can “we” – us normal folk – really do? If anything.

Band-Aids can fix many things, but not the world.

Well, a natural starting place is to get angry. This may not be the most effective starting point in practice, but anger generates motivation to do something – vs. just standing back and muttering aggressively. Serious motivation to act seems to be the most important initial ingredient, but anger-driven?

It seems, not surprisingly, that quite a few people around the world are angry. Bruce Wilds via The Burning Platform reports that “You Are Not Alone, Anger Is Building Across The World!”:

“You are not alone if you are tired of watching your government grow increasingly oppressive and corrupt. Many people across the world share your pain. People continue to voice their anger and discontent, however, this is something the media often chooses not to report for it is owned by those same forces which are attempting to enslave us.”

“This tends to overlook the fact that both groups [left and right] are rooted in wanting to expand control. The truth is that the angst and growing anger many people feel is kept under control by a mass media with a very strong agenda. Mass media has perfected the art of dividing us and at the same time keeping us in the dark. The greatest risk we face may be that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming at us fast and furious. Once it is here getting information will become almost impossible.”

“There are simply too many things happening for the bulk of society to stay focused on any one issue.”

There are other reports of protests and even riots of various flavors. Such group actions can be productive by drawing the attention of rulers to strongly-held concerns of both the ruled and the unruly. One might even fantasize that the rulers have in mind here what can happen when protests and the like get out of control, as seems to have happened in the late 1700’s in France.

In this situation, protests and worse led to the Reign of Terror that resulted in King Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette, and Maximilien Robespierre being executed in most unpleasant ways. Things did indeed get out of control. France ended up with Napoleon Bonaparte as general, emperor, and subsequent disaster-creator.

Great anger channeled into riots and the like seems like a formula for disaster, or at least for an array of largely uncontrollable and unpredictable outcomes. Such anger-driven action does not seem to me to be a productive approach if one’s goal is to be helpful, or at the very least to do no harm.

It is just motivation to act, possibly in the face of considerable personal danger, that seems to be an essential first step. Something that we personally care very strongly about. But what?

If we are looking for a way to actually be helpful, to make a real difference, we might want to begin with people and what’s worrying them most.

What are real people’s concerns today?

Statista has a wonderful chart (below) of people’s concerns, based on a January 2023 survey of 20,570 people worldwide, ages 16-74. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t have guessed anything close to this array of concerns. These are not globalist agenda items but instead pain-point concerns of real people. Assuming that real people are still important in the grand scheme of things and cyborgs.

You may notice the absence in this chart of artificial intelligence taking over the world, or worse. This is such a hot topic among the tech elites and powers-that-be (like good old Elon). Maybe this illustrates the time lag of people’s daily concerns or worries, suggesting that they will be worried about AI nastiness down the road a bit, and only when such nastiness directly impacts them.

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/946266/most-worrying-topics-worldwide/

Pretty clearly, individuals acting more or less on their own can’t tackle more than one or two of these. The magnitude of almost all such “concerns” may well be beyond what any individual can influence significantly. This suggests that one’s activism might better be employed via interest groups, activism.

The choice of a group to join probably depends most upon what each individual feels most strongly about in the context of major concerns. It also depends upon opportunity, where one gets involved in an action area largely by circumstances.

This whole question seems so complex and extensive that it cannot be addressed productively as a whole, but perhaps better via three simple examples:

Example 1: Inflation

Inflation, or cost of living, is experienced most often by us real people in terms of finding our consumption of whatever is regularly exceeding our available resources, aka income and money-things. We cope for a while at least by borrowing and maxing out cards, but that has obvious limits. We then begin to pare back spending on nonessentials and to focus available resources on what seems most important. This of course doesn’t fix inflation, does it?

We know that inflation is caused by continued devaluation of our money – by 98% or so since 1913. Our available dollars simply buy less each year. Inflation is also caused by shortages of various flavors. In this case, whatever supply is available gets marked up in price by market actions until demand falls. Regulations can also drive prices up by adding to producer costs. What can we possibly do to change any of these?

Well, some folks set up buying groups to bulk purchase those goods that have substantial quantity discounts.
Individuals may change their buying habits through careful budgeting so as to stay within available resources and to avoid borrowing to support consumption.
Individuals can seek out suppliers who offer the lowest costs and change suppliers as opportunities arise – bargain-hunting, they used to call this.

You can likely come up with many more and better ideas to keep your buying in line with income and without borrowing. So, how does this help reduce inflation?

Quite simply, it works through market processes. Your demand shifts to lower cost suppliers and focuses on essentials. You don’t borrow via cards, but stay within your income – reducing interest costs. None of this requires protests and riots. Just personal initiative and self-control.

Am I really helping others by doing these kinds of inflation-related things? Of course – you are helping drive down market prices that can benefit everyone. It just takes enough of us willing to bear the hassles that this all entails and to encourage and support others in doing the same. We can make a real difference.

Example 2. Poverty and social inequality

The poor and disadvantaged have been with us forever, and will continue to be. Life is neither fair nor equal in so many respects. Our recent COVID-related struggles have greatly spread and intensified such problems. The good old days that never were are probably gone forever. So, what can we possibly do to help with this unending human problem? How about food and shelter:

Contributing money to a local food bank is a solid way to reduce the impact of poverty on hunger caused by so many different situations.
Volunteering in a local food pantry, which actually distributes food contributions to the needy.
Volunteering to help out with food service in a local homeless shelter for a few hours a week.

There are so many other ways to make a real difference in reducing the pain and suffering of those faced with poverty in the basics of living. Actions like these probably won’t do much to get at the cause of poverty and inequality, but they will surely aid directly and effectively those unfortunates who may become disadvantaged. While these may not seem like a big deal to us fortunates, they may well help a life-or-death challenge for so many others less fortunate.

Again, making a real difference through these kinds of actions takes personal motivation and serious caring. Protest and riots not required.

So many organizations need volunteers to help.

Example 3. Unemployment

Like so much else in life, unemployment at some level will be with us always. At the individual level, it may occur via an economic downturn, war, natural catastrophe, serious illness, or even the government helping out. COVID whacked employment almost everywhere, but the outcome seems to have been a major shift toward self-employment and freelancing. Here, you are never “unemployed”. For the still-employed, you may have gained a hybrid workplace, not full back-to-the-office as so many employers desperately wanted. But what if anything can we do about the big-picture unemployment situation?

Employment is mostly determined by a combination of personal circumstances, government misaction (yes, it’s a word but not in Scrabble), and business conditions. Pretty much stuff that just happens. Except of course for wars that do great things for employment – temporarily for losers and longer-term for winners. Again, for individuals seeking to make a real difference, the right direction is probably to think small:

Keep yourself from risking unemployment by diversifying both your marketable skills and your current sources of income – no more all-eggs-in-one-basket living.
Start or grow a small business if you have the necessary resources since small businesses employ by far the greatest number of people.
Make a special effort to assist anyone you know who has become unemployed, like using your contact base to refer and help get referrals.

You will be able to come up with many and better ideas here, but the approach is focused on things of a smaller nature that might be feasible for individuals. I am a great believer in small. In any case, you can quickly see that you, individually, can make a real difference in addressing unemployment.

It just takes significant effort and caring enough to act. Just.

Enough of thinking small – what about big actions?

This is where it gets a lot more difficult. Unless you are among the relatively few movers-and-shakers in a position to direct substantial resources to addressable needs and problems, tackling the big-picture may appear largely impractical, if not virtually impossible. Even the various powers-that-be operate within some quite severe constraints on what they can actually do in practice. Many large organizations are followers who prefer to go with the flow, if you will forgive yet another euphemism.

Once again, it may be helpful to look at some specific examples of current big-picture challenges.

Global governance – they are playing for keeps this time

It has become apparent that what is happening today has been planned for decades. We are in the rollout phase. There will be no backing down, since failure means fates like the French aristocracy mentioned earlier.

Brandon Smith via Zero Hedge stated the situation rather starkly: “The Club Of Rome: How Climate Hysteria Is Being Used To Create Global Governance”:

“In the midst of this economic ‘malaise,’ which Jimmy Carter later referred to as a ‘crisis of confidence,’ the United Nations and associated globalist round table groups were hard at work developing a scheme to convince the population to embrace global centralization of power. Their goals were rather direct. They wanted:

A rationale for governmental control of human population numbers.
The power to limit industry.
The power to control energy production and dictate energy sources.
The power to control or limit food production and agriculture.
The ability to micromanage individuals lives in the name of some later defined ‘greater good.’
A socialized society in which the individual right to property is abandoned.
A one-world economic system which they would manage.
A one-world currency system.
A one-world government managing a handful of separate regions.

“One of the most revealing quotes on the agenda comes from Clinton Administration Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbot, who stated in Time magazine that:”

“In the next century, nations as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority… National sovereignty wasn’t such a great idea after all.”

Consequently, what we might be able and willing to do must face this possible reality. My guess is that the various powers-that-be will succeed to a large degree, fairly soon. Inevitably, they will crash and burn as so many like them in history have done, but the make-a-real-difference task ahead seems clear – to me at least. So, what can we do to make a difference in a world dominance situation?

WEF founder Klaus Schwab leading the charge toward global governance and control.

Obstruct, disrupt, distract, invisibly undermine

The idea here is to do whatever-may-be-possible to make whatever the-powers-that-be are attempting more difficult. Also necessary in general is personal survival, although such a worthy aim may not always be achievable. Real heroism.

As I noted in a recent post, world-dominators and their ilk require large cohesive groups to surveil and control effectively. They are not structured to handle individuals and small diverse groups except by heavy-handed means of coercion, terror, and mass propaganda – by fear, in other words. Such targets have been in past simply eliminated by force wherever possible.

Today, however, technology has provided some great new ways to act invisibly or beneath notice. Important for survival. Such under-the-radar, to use an old term, actions tend to be opportunistic and to be done by individuals and small diverse groups. My favorite example here is the 2006 German movie The Lives of Others that describes how a playwright and a small group manage to outwit the powerful and ruthless East German Stasi.

Approaches of this sort have been used against tyrannical regimes approximately forever. With varying degrees of success and resister survival.

Central bank (government) control over our money and privacy

Part of the huge effort to achieve world domination or domination of a civilization is using Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) for surveillance of everyone and thus for control of everyone (see, for example, here and here). China is presently leading the way on this kind of domination through its social credit mechanisms. Do what the party dictates or else, with the “else” option being extremely painful and nasty.

Doug Casey writing in The Burning Platform is among many who are raising alarms over control of money threats: “Doug Casey on the Death of Privacy… and What Comes Next”:

“International Man: In practically every country, the allowable limit for cash withdrawals and transactions continues to be lowered. Further, rampant currency debasement is lowering the real value of these ridiculous limits. Why are governments so intent on phasing out cash? What is really behind this coordinated effort?”

“Doug Casey: Let me draw your attention to three truths that my friend Nick Giambruno has pointed out about money in bank accounts:

#1. The money isn’t really yours. You’re just another unsecured creditor if the bank goes bust.

#2. The money isn’t actually there. It’s been lent out to borrowers who are illiquid or insolvent.

#3. The money isn’t really money. It’s credit created out of thin air.”

“The point is that cash is freedom. And when the State limits the utility of cash—physical dollars that don’t leave an electronic trail—they are limiting your personal freedom to act and compromising your privacy. Governments are naturally opposed to personal freedom and personal privacy because those things limit their control, and governments are all about control.”

Privacy in this context is what surveillance via universal money-tracking eliminates. Here again, CBDCs and the near-elimination of government-issued cash seems almost certain to succeed based on current progress. We will all likely be forced into CBDC usage in the too-near-future once the control aspects become fully operational. This situation seems extremely tough to counter, but maybe …

Using privately-issued scrip

Investopedia has a useful overview of privately issued scrip as a money substitute:

“In a broad sense, the term scrip refers to any type of substitutional currency that replaces legal tender. In many instances, a scrip is a form of credit but is generally always some form of documentation of debt.”

“Scrips were created to pay or compensate employees under the truck system. This system, which began during the Industrial Revolution, meant that employees were paid in kind with commodities, vouchers, tokens, or some other form instead of cash. This was usually to the benefit of the employer, not the employee.”

“Scrips have also been widely used in localized commerce when traditional or legal currency is unavailable or in short supply. This includes small communities or towns—such as the first coal towns—in remote locations, military bases, ships at sea for long periods of time, and in occupied countries during wartime.”

Scrips are typically used at small scales, within groups or communities, and may not be seen by the-powers-that-be as threatening or worth fighting. Wikipedia offers this note among much other background:

“Community-issued scrip. The use of locally issued scrip accepted by multiple businesses within a community has increased during the late-2000s recession. Community-wide scrip usage has begun or is on the rise in Ithaca, New York; Detroit; The Berkshires; Pittsboro, North Carolina; Traverse City, Michigan; Lamar, Colorado; Calgary, Canada; Bristol, UK; and Hagen, Germany. Breadcoin scrip was created in Washington DC in 2016 to address food insecurity.”

Staying fully informed is vital

This post barely touches the surface of what is going on in our world today. There is so much more happening that is too important to ignore – if you are among those of us who truly wish to make a real difference.

Bottom line:

From my observations and reading, there are a great many people out there who truly want to do something to help somehow – to make a real (important) difference. But the enormous number and magnitude of challenges we face today can be overwhelming. This post looked at a few ideas that may be of assistance to those who have or can develop much better ideas and who are courageous and determined enough to act despite the huge obstacles almost everywhere.