How To Fix The World! Really!

I have been using this phrase:  "I want to change the world" now for a decade or more.  I think it started on our first trip to Africa, when I began to realize that poverty around the world is not just an accident of geography - but there is an element which we can change - culture and world views.  That trip and subsequent ones to Asia and Nicaragua, and a lot of reading, have set me on this pursuit - how to change the world!  A better phrase might be - "how to fix the world".  If there is any dominant characteristic of the culture of the U.S., it is that we are set on "fixing the world".  The amazing this is that we think we can do it!

Why fix the world?  Well, it is in sorry shape and seems to be getting worse.  We have billions in poverty, who live a life like most of human kind before the industrial revolution.  Back then, most everyone's life was short, dark and brutal.  Nowadays, some of us live here in Disney World, while the vast majority of the world is still struggling along.  That costs us all - we lose their contribution, their ideas, their genius, their art, their support, their discoveries. Our potential is enormous.  If you think the last 50 years have been amazing - since we invented things like computers and electronics - you ain't seen nothing yet. Nanotechnology, genomics, biology have only scratched the surface of what humans can do.  But we need everyone on board with this - everyone.  My buddy Ned once had the second smartest kid in all of Tanzania living in his town.  This kid could not afford to go to the "free" public school.  So Ned helped him.  Now he is a contributing member of his society - and he is smart as a tack.  We will all benefit from that kid, what he learns and what he does.

Up to now, the U.S. has been trying to fix the world with a bit of money and a lot of force.  The investment in the force part - war - amounts to trillions.  The investment in the money part is on the order of billions.  But neither works very well.  It is really IDEAS that matter.  So just how does one do that part?

It feels like a hopeless task.  I have found a few kindred souls here and there who are laboring about this.  But they are all doing a few things - good things - but just a few things. I really appreciate what they are doing - and I try to help.  But I want to CHANGE THE WORLD - not just fiddle around at the edges.  I want a new movement, a new "religion", a new group I can join or support or create, to move all of us down the road here a bit.

I just found a bit of insight.  I have this clever little APP called Zite (http://zite.com/) on my iPad and iPod that gives me articles that I am probably interested in.  You rate things as you read, and it follows up with related or similar materials.  It just fed me a blog from the Harvard Business Review that is focused on "fixing the world", by Umair Haque.  You can check him out here:  Wikipedia Entry.  He writes for Harvard Business Review, so he is not a fringe type.  The entry that got my attention is this one:
http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2012/11/how_to_fix_your_soul.htmll

He says it is "how to fix your soul", but he is really out to fix the world. Turns out they are related!  Who knew? He is a major capitalist leaning sort of dude - so no "socialism" or "libertarianism" here.  He is very much into behavioral economics and the like.  He is trying to change the world, but he thinks that the change is already under way.  It is NOT a movement, not an 'occupy', not a new fanaticism like our friends at the "tea party".  It is a million small revolutions.  And you take part in it by fixing you own soul!

I don't know about you, but outside of a few more bucks, I have mostly every material thing that I have ever wanted.  I could get bigger, faster gadgets, I guess.  But I don't really NEED anything.  So what do we work toward now?  How about meaning and purpose?  How about hope in human kind - that we can do better at this living business?

He espouses things like broader measures for economic success, much as Michael Porter does.  But he is very hopeful about it.  I guess that is what I like.  The Christian tradition would call it "faith".  I have a great "hope" that we can figure this out and make it work.  IHe thinks it is already under way!  The kingdom is at hand.  What was the other choice anyway?

Read the piece. Let me know what you think.  I'm going to go read the rest of his stuff.  Thanks.