How do you save the world?

[Dreadsox]

Seriously?

Can one person make a difference?

Can you save the world?

Is there room for everyone?

Thoughts?

 

[Earl-Of-IMDb]

Yes there is. just do what you love, stay in touch with friends and family, avoid trouble and thats it.

i know there is more but i can't think right know.

 

[Canadiens1131]

No,

yes,

no,

there's room but not the resources.

 

[JCOSTER]

I truly believe in it takes a village to raise a child. (and no I'm not voting for Hillary.)

But I do think that your actions as a human being wether it be holding the door open for an elderly person to contributing money and volunteering will hopefully impact someone else and the pay it forward system would occur.

You do a kind act for someone then the do one and so on and so on.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I think you start by saving yourself

 

[BVS]

Can one person make a difference?

Yes

Can you save the world?

Probably not.

Is there room for everyone?

Yes, but it may require a little sacrifice for some.

Thoughts?

Yesterday when I pulled up to the to go window to get my chicken fajita taco salad, the person said it was taken care of, the woman in front of me paid for it and said happy holidays. It made me think of the movie Pay it Forward(not a paticularly great movie, but a good message), so last night I played a pretty well playing gig with a friend of mine and I let her take the whole thing. The money would have been nice this time of year, but I know she's really struggling and needs the money more than I do.

What if this type of thing would happen large and small scale all year round? Why just the holidays? It's like after 9/11 everyone said the atmosphere changed in NY, people spoke to each other were nicer to each other(don't know how much of this is true) but that it slowly went back to business as usual. But what if it didn't? What if we nations as a whole started doing this?

Or maybe I should lay off the eggnog

 

[Liesje]

Can one person make a difference?

Yes


Can you save the world?

No


Is there room for everyone?

More than enough

 

[nathan1977]

Can one person make a difference?

I remember vacationing in the Bahamas once, and we were cautioned not to touch the coral or take anything, because one touch could negatively affect the whole bed for up to 60 miles. It was a reminder that everything and everyone makes an impact. No one merely passes through life, and no life is insignificant.

Can you save the world?

Increasingly, people believe that we destroy the world every day with our actions and choices. If we can have an environmental impact on the world for negative, we must be able to have an impact for positive. And if this is true of things we do see, how much moreso is it true for things we don't?

Is there room for everyone?

There is always room for one more.

 

[Irvine511]

i've got "Man in the Mirror" stuck in my head.

it's not a bad song. and he might be onto something.

 

[the iron horse]

Can one person make a difference?

Yes,

We are not perfect, but we should all try to do the right thing all we can. What's the right thing? That's where we have to ask ourselves what we place our faith on.



Can you save the world?

No, but I believe that rebel from Nazareth will
come back one day to set everything right.


Is there room for everyone?

John 3:16

 

[JCOSTER]

I think you start by saving yourself

 

[melon]

Can one person make a difference?

That "one person" can only make a difference by soliciting the help of others. What was Attila the Hun without his army?

Can you save the world?

A loaded question. Too many people make "saving the world" synonymous with the "end of history," more or less. If by "saving the world," you mean the ever-elusive goal of permanent "world peace," then the answer is "no." But we still have our obligation to future generations to continue to try and save the world.

Is there room for everyone?

Yes, but that isn't going to change the fact that history seems to vacillate between periods of intolerant nativism and accepting diversity. And, as long as we have "traditionalist" elements in society, whether that be politicians or religious clerics, they will exploit nativist sentiments periodically to try and keep a grip on power long after their time.

 

[zuropa_fit]

Can you save the world?

No, but I believe that rebel from Nazareth will
come back one day to set everything right.

I don't mean to be inflamatory at all, but isn't this sort of passing the buck?

 

[redsox04]

It made me think of the movie Pay it Forward

Starbucks Customers Pay It Forward
Fri., Dec. 14, 2007

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. - A customer in a South Florida drive-through paid the bill for the customer behind him on Thursday, and the chain continued throughout the day.

Drivers at a Starbucks in Pompano Beach paid for drinks for the people behind all day long.

"Your drink has been paid for by the driver in front of you," a Starbucks barista told a customer.

The barista said she had one woman convinced that they were on "Candid Camera. "

It all started with one customer's gesture of paying it forward.

"I think it's awesome," one customer said. "Spreads a lot of Christmas cheer."

The manager at the Starbucks said the idea has made his work atmosphere cheerful all day.

"Every customer that comes through the drive-through has been smiling and saying, 'You made my day.'"

Employees said the chain of kindness started with anger. Arthur Rosenfeld said the man behind him on Thursday morning was honking and yelling at him, so Rosenfeld, a Tai-Chi master, responded with a bit of Zen.

"It wasn't an idea to pay anything forward, nor was it even a random act of kindness, it was a change of consciousness," he said. "Take this negative and change it into something positive."

 

[Dreadsox]

Awesome.

 

[redsox04]

It appears this is not an isolated incident. Here is another story of a related but separate (recent) occurrence.

Starbucks Pay It Forward
Associated Press
Friday, December 21st, 2007

MARYSVILLE -- One woman's kindness to a fellow Starbucks customer has resulted in more than a thousand others spreading holiday generosity in Marysville. The regular customer paid for the person in line behind her a few times before, according to The Everett Herald. When she did the same thing Wednesday, though, that good deed set off a chain of 1,013 customers who each paid for the next person's drink. Many even tacked on an extra ten or twenty dollars, and shift manager Sarah Nix says Starbucks Corporation will donate to that money to the company's holiday toy drive. A store employee says the seemingly spontaneous pay-it-forward run ended at 6:20 a.m. today. The name of the iced-tea drinker who started it remains unknown.

 

[maycocksean]

Oooh, I've been watching the first season of Heroes on my Christmas break, so I've been thinking about these kinds of questions already.

Can one person make a difference?

Yes.

Can you save the world?

Saving the world--whatever that means, whether it's world peace or something else, is beyond the ability of one person to do (unless of course you're talking VERY literally and Maniacal Doomsday Terrorist has his hand on the nuclear button to blow up the planet and you've got a gun pointed at him, but now we're talking comic books. It's the kind of "world-saving" Heroes focuses on. Basically the world is "saved" so that it can continue as it has been). However, I think it's important not to get too hung up on that or to do despair of trying to accomplish great things. I believe each individual on the planet is of great value, and if we can save a single life that value is no less diminished because we couldn't save every life.

For that reason, no, the "rebel of Nazareth" isn't a cop out. At least I don't think it is. The kind of grand, sweeping, type of saving of the whole world that ends all human suffering and ushers in an age of peace and love is beyond the reach of any one individual or group of individuals. We need something or Someone larger than ourselves. And I know, I know, there are lots of people that find such a philsophy unattractive and that's fine. It's just what I believe.

And let me add for good measure, that any follower of the "rebel of Nazareth" should be doing his or her best to alleviate human suffering and usher in peace and love until he shows up to give us the big push we need to get to where we all want to be.

Is there room for everyone?

Yes, but I wonder what the costs might be and if we'd be truly willing to pay them. When we say "room", what are we referring to? 5 star? 3? a rundown motel, or a shack with sufficient food and water? What constitutes "room for everyone?"

 

[verte76]

Yes. I used to be on the Board of Directors of the African Well Fund. That was my way of saving the world.

 

[sue4u2]

Can one person make a difference?
Not to be cliche but one=all - individually.

Can you save the world?
Yes.

Is there room for everyone?
So far..

Keep in mind the world or earth will thrive.. once mankind has
eliminated itself.
We have to evolve from our violent past, present and future to save humanity.

 

[AttnKleinkind]

I've been pondering a few things about charity lately. I know my questions are rather cynical, but I'm going to go ahead with them anyways so maybe I can get some clarity.

Just...what good does it do? Every African child you feed will eventually die. And if you help a homeless man to get back on his feet and have a nice life, what is it for? So he can play golf on the weekends? Or, so he can 'pay it forward'? But what does it ultimately add up to?

Also it's apparently better to give than to receive, right? Well, the reason it feels so good is because we see just how happy some person was to receive. So...doesn't that contradict itself? I don't know.

 

[BVS]

I've been pondering a few things about charity lately. I know my questions are rather cynical, but I'm going to go ahead with them anyways so maybe I can get some clarity.

Just...what good does it do? Every African child you feed will eventually die. And if you help a homeless man to get back on his feet and have a nice life, what is it for? So he can play golf on the weekends? Or, so he can 'pay it forward'? But what does it ultimately add up to?

Also it's apparently better to give than to receive, right? Well, the reason it feels so good is because we see just how happy some person was to receive. So...doesn't that contradict itself? I don't know.

Wow...

Well since we're all going to die, let's all stop eating, right?

Since we can't all live a life of playing golf, what the point?

How does that contradict itself?

 

[AttnKleinkind]

I'm not trying to be an idiot or anything, I'm honestly wondering.

What I mean is, we make people happy by providing them with material things, but then we say it's not material things that make people happy, it's helping others. But the way we make them happy is by giving them material things. I don't know if that clears up what I was trying to get across or not...

 

[BVS]

I'm not trying to be an idiot or anything, I'm honestly wondering.

What I mean is, we make people happy by providing them with material things, but then we say it's not material things that make people happy, it's helping others. But the way we make them happy is by giving them material things. I don't know if that clears up what I was trying to get across or not...

So now food or blankets are just material things?

 

[sue4u2]

I don't know if that clears up what I was trying to get across or not...

Material things to starving people?
No..
I now have no idea what you are trying to say.

 

[BonosSaint]

I'm not trying to be an idiot or anything, I'm honestly wondering.

What I mean is, we make people happy by providing them with material things, but then we say it's not material things that make people happy, it's helping others. But the way we make them happy is by giving them material things. I don't know if that clears up what I was trying to get across or not...

Questions, cynical or not, don't damage anyone.

I'll give it a shot.

1. I think it is good to give and to receive.
2. Material things beyond a certain point may not (or may)
make people happy. But there are material things you need
to survive. Food, shelter, clothing. You're not trying to make
people happy with these things (though they may be happy
enough to receive them); you're trying to give them a chance.
There is nothing wrong with material things. We are all
material things. I suppose the trouble we get into is when
we value acquisition over people, when the desire for material
things gets out of balance. If I have more than I need, then
maybe I share a little of it with someone who has less than
he/she needs. That's all.
3. I don't know how it all adds up. I just think of it as one step
at a time. It's better for a person to be fed than to starve.
It's better for the vulnerable to be protected than to be
abandoned.
3.

 

[maycocksean]

^What she said.

We're all going to be dead eventually. We know that. But I think we'd all--African kids included--rather that be later than sooner. And we all want to have a meaningful, happy life while we have it. I think that's what all the "difference-making" is all about. As I said earlier, the really Big Picture stuff like the inevitablity of pain and death is outside of our ability to defeat. But the "little stuff"--being able to make the most of the life and health we currently have or can have--that we can do something about.

 

[maycocksean]

So now food or blankets are just material things?

Aw, come on now, BVS. Take it easy.

I think these questions were posed in good faith. Give 'em a chance.

 

[BVS]

Aw, come on now, BVS. Take it easy.

I think these questions were posed in good faith. Give 'em a chance.

But am I not allowed to question back with the same cynicism to try and make a point?

 

[maycocksean]

But am I not allowed to question back with the same cynicism to try and make a point?

course, you're allowed.

I agree the question is maybe a bit cynical but the attitude didn't seem to be. I just didn't get the sense this was someone trying to bait us or something. We both know there ARE posters who do that, I just wasn't convinced this was one of them. But then maybe you know something about this poster that I don't.

 

[BVS]

course, you're allowed.

I agree the question is maybe a bit cynical but the attitude didn't seem to be. I just didn't get the sense this was someone trying to bait us or something.

Fair enough. I don't know if this poster was baiting either. I've just found sometimes with questions like this the point is made better by turning around the question rather than giving a very detailed answer.

This line of questioning from this posters original post would seem fairly obvious to most. You feed children to prolong their lives that hopefully they find a way out of the cycle, you don't stop feeding them because, well they will all eventually die, that seems fairly obvious to most. But because the line of question comes from such a cynical place, I don't think a straight forward answer is really going to help. But if you turn their questioning around so they realize where their questioning is coming from sometimes they will see the flaw in their questioning.