On Fri, 12 Jan 1996, GSCHERL wrote:
> Responding to Barry's post:
> > When I was in college and fresh out, I wanted to change the world
> > according to what I believed was best in my heart of hearts.
> and
> > That reality is that you can't force change on others, even when you
> > are certain you are in the right, that what people do now is any of the
> > following: wrong, bad, destructive, inefficient, wasteful. It takes
> > education and time. Spirit of the idea is so very different from
> > letter of the idea, to paraphrase the cliche.
>
> I've just written an article on a very similar topic. You can force
> change on others (fire them, change their environment...), what you can't
> do is motivate them to change themselves. You have to show people their
> own WIIFM (What's in it for me) before they'll do anything. Once people
> recognize they can change themselves, and what benefits they get, they
> will start changing their world. But there are still alot of negative
> forces to get them to stop changing and investing in themselves.
>
> We all have to listen to our heart of hearts and change the world towards
> what we beleive. Sometimes others will be nay-sayers and we'll forget
> that part of ourselves. That's where the positive associations and
> concepts from this mail list (and for me, TPN) are so important to our
> futures.
>
> Keep on Dreaming, and your dreams will come true!
Perhaps this is unnecessary, but in reading your response, Gary, I felt a
desire to shift one small part of your statement. For me, I would phrase
it thusly--"We all have to listen to our heart of hearts and change
ourselves in the directions we believe in. Our world will definitely
change as a result." I guess I react to the notion of changeing The World
when I keep coming up against evidence that it is always My World that I
am experiencing anyway. Other than that, I am with you and Barry and
others on this list who say so eloquently--KEEP ON LEARNING AND YOU WILL
KEEP ON GROWING!!
Thanks for pitching in your perspectives and insights,
-- Tobin Quereau Austin Community College quereau@austin.cc.tx.us