A few months ago, my dad shared with me the importance of being a ‘game changer’. I really liked the term, because it made perfect sense to me.
What's a game changer?
Consider this saying: ‘Give a man a fish and you’ll feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you’ll feed him for a lifetime.’
I believe most of us, with the purest of intentions, try to be ‘good’ by ‘giving a fish’ when we can. But our impact is only temporary. That person still needs another fish the next day, and the next. We've done nothing to solve the problem. People are going hungry and we're offering Band-Aids.
An activist is one who is an: "especially active, vigorous advocate of a cause." (dictionary.com)
Activists are game changers. Nelson Mandela, Princess Diana, Gandhi, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Malala Yousafzai, Naomi Klein, Rosa Parks: all game changers.
Like them, I want to ‘change the game,’ and it was because of people like this that I became an activist.
One of my dad's favorite sayings is, ‘There are two kinds of people in this world, the good and the bad. The good decide which is which.’ I don’t think that people wake up one morning and consciously decide, ‘I’m going to be a bad person’.
I find that ignorance of ‘the other’ is what causes blind hatred, suffering and injustice in this world.
Do we know about factory farming? What about child labor and sweatshops? I think that we all know in the back of our mind that these things are happening and that they are inhumane, unethical, and don’t reflect most of our values and beliefs... but because we don’t see them first hand, most of us eat our food and buy our things without realizing we are supporting such unethical practices. Most of us believe we're powerless to affect change. But consider the Dalai Lama XIV: “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
To be an effective activist, I think it's important to be knowledgeable, open minded and constantly reading, listening and learning from those who support your side and those who do not. If you're standing up for something, I think it’s important to know as much as possible about what you are standing up for, why you are standing up for it, who you are standing up against, what their position is and to seek common ground with your opposition. Again, I don’t believe the majority of us wake up each morning deciding to be a bad person. We just need to work together and communicate better.
Mark Twain said: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” I truly believe that.
I became an activist last year after spending a few years living and traveling the world. Seeing third world problems in person really woke me up from the superficial life in which many of us live. How can we be oblivious to the troubles that countless people in this world are facing, even many in our own country? In “Why Americans know so much about sports but so little about world affairs,” Noam Chomsky explains how American’s aren’t stupid, the system is just set up that way. But, I’ll save that for a future article and end with a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from April 18, 1956:
“Whatever career you may chose for yourself - doctor, lawyer, teacher - let me propose an avocation to be pursued along with it. Become a dedicated fighter for civil rights. Make it a central part of your life. It will make you a better doctor, a better lawyer, a better teacher. It will enrich your spirit as nothing else possibly can. It will give you that rare sense of nobility that can only spring from love and selflessly helping your fellow man. Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater Nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.” In that speech, I heard it clearly:
"BE A GAME CHANGER"
The Game Changers
by Ashley Abboushi