Reflection

[autographedcat]

Do we dare attempt to make the world we have the world as we would have it?

Comments

[cellio]

Do we dare not to? What alternative do we have?

[umbran.livejournal.com]

Do we dare assume we know what we really want, and fully understand the consequences of having it? :)

[madfilkentist]

The word "we" is the really dangerous one in the question. Which "we" is deciding how the world should be remade?

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Well, in this case, it's a more personal question. The real question is "Do *I* dare...", but phrased to be a hypothetical.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Is this not what we do already, for various competing values of "we?"

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

To the quick, sir.

[delennara.livejournal.com]

Some of us maybe...
Some just try to get through one day after the other without being too much shouted at, or just get through without starving or dying or such...
Trying to actually take influence is....a luxus function.

[braider.livejournal.com]

Only if we start in little ways that will not crush us with the weight of comprehension.

[catalana.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

If we do not try to make the world the way we want it, we have no right to complain or be unhappy when the world is not as we wish, or when it changes in a way we don't like.

Perhaps it is arrogance, but I am far more troubled by my lack of power to change things than by my lack of wisdom to see what changes we need.

[joyeuse13.livejournal.com]

Define "world." My small sphere of influence, you betcha. The war in Iraq? How???

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

We all dare to work towards that, to some small extent and in whatever way "we" each want to have it. (Heck, I do that when I wash the dishes. It's a matter of scale, really.)

[joecoustic.livejournal.com]

Okay here's what I think.

I think if you feel you can and need to then you should. It's in your heart and soul and just needs to come out sometimes - like a song.

Yes I absolutely believe that many of the terrible things in our world have happened due to people trying to remake the world into what they thought was right, but so have so many - and I hope more - wonderful and important things. Too many take the world as they see it and say "no one person can do something alone so why should I try" but it takes a dreamer and idealist to say - "I have a dream".

*hugs*

[niquildrvr.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking more of Prufrock's question: "Do I dare disturb the universe?"

We change what we can, within our sphere of influence. To not dare to do so is to live a life "measured out in coffee spoons".

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Not merely "dare". Must so attempt, lest we leave no mark on the world, else why live? (Well, okay, so it makes its mark on one, but that's only half the reason we live.)

[billroper]

Yeah. But we also have to know what we can accomplish today and what will have to wait until tomorrow.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

o/~ Some day I'll have a disappearing hairline
Some day I'll wear pyjamas in the day time
Oh whoa oh oh, Afternoons
Will be measured out, measured out, measured with
Coffee spoons
And TS Elliot o/~

--Crash Test Dummies, "Afternoons and Coffeespoons"

Whis is to say: Yes, that exactly.

[elgecko.livejournal.com]

Always do. Always dare. Inaction has a much higher price than error.

[grey-lady.livejournal.com]

This single word from the professional philosopher? :-)

[catalana.livejournal.com]

*grin* Yeah, I thought that was funny, too. But I spend my life wading through professional gobblety-gook; I don't need to generate it for fun. I think this is a question that clearly has an answer. After all, he didn't ask me *how* we do that - he just asked if we *dare* do it.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

*grin* Yeah, and that straightforwardness is one of the things I love about you. :)

[almeda.livejournal.com]

That's my main problem.

I hate that I'm terrified of everything, and wish I could be blithely bolder ... and then I see people who are the nightmarish exaggeration of my 'goal' and suddenly am glad I'm not like THAT.