As I was talking to my brother earlier, I brought up the subject of go-karting. I somewhat jokingly asked him if he wanted to go sometime; he hates it, so I knew what the answer would be, but I hold onto a sliver of hope that he’ll one day join me in taking it up.
You see, Motorsport as a whole is something I’ve been passionate about for a long time, and whilst go-karting doesn’t exactly respresent the pinnacle, it’s extremely accessible to those like me who don’t have the resources to invest into something bigger. Whilst my brother and I were talking, (or whilst I was mostly talking at him; he’s a great listener…) I mentioned in a whimsical sort of way that I would have loved for someone to push me to take up karting at a young age. If that were the case, there’d be a chance that I’d be flying amongst the ranks of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in F1; after all, they all started karting very young, with Lewis Hamilton being just 8 years old.
I would have never been able to offer the rigourous training that Lewis Hamilton had for my brother, but when he was 12, I took him karting in the hopes that he might find a passion for it, and offer him a small opportunity to hone in on those skills during his formative years. However, he didn’t enjoy it, and he didn’t go again…
This conversation spurred off a series of thoughts, and ultimately led me to ponder over what I might personally do if I had the opportunity to make a large impact on the world; to shape it in the way I wanted.
If You Were Offered a World Changing Amount of Money, What Would You Do With it?
I find this question can tell you a lot about a person. Most of us only have enough resources and social influence to impact those immediately around us. What we’d do with the power to affect the entire world might bring to light someone’s ultimate ideals, rather than merely putting up with their current circumstances to some degree.
One of the first questions I considered is whether I would even want to wield the power to change the world; it’s a massive responsibility, and who am I to sway how someone’s life is carried out? Every single one of us makes an impact on the lives of others, through our every day actions. However, wealth could allow us to extend that reach, and even intentionally change the outcomes of others if we choose to do so.
So, what would I do with a huge amount of resources? My first thoughts led me to setting up the perfect world-wide community; a utopian style place where everybody gets along, and where everything works out. Everybody is of a similar mind and they get along perfectly with each other.
After considering this idea briefly however, I figured that it simply wouldn’t work. We can’t control the thoughts of others. We might find ways to suppress the ideas and beliefs they have which stand against that of the “Perfect Community”, but looking at the world as it is today, we don’t agree, and I suppose it’s easy to understand why in some ways. We were born into varying circumstances and our unbringings and genealogy are unique. Based on this, amongst other things, we’ve come to varying conclusions on morality and the right way of life as a whole. We’ll never agree on everything as it stands, so it’s probably useful to accept that.
With that being the case, what else would I do? I’m not a trained Psychologist, so take these words with a big pinch of salt, but one idea I have would be to find a way to introduce and encourage the taking up of a class on psychology for students at an age who could understand the concept. More specifically, classes that teach introspection; that being techniques on how we can understand our mind better; to make better choices in regard to the decisions we make and the path we choose to take in life. It’s taking into consideration why we choose to do what we do, and being mindful as to the reasons we’ve made those choices.
My hope would be that people who have undertaken these classes would find it easier to make well informed choices based on what they’re comfortable with; understanding their limitations, what they excel in, and knowing more fully their creative inclinations and putting it into action.
The result? I would like to think this could be just one of a number of ways that could reduce the number of people who feel lost and aimless in this world. It’s seen across many walks of life, but perhaps it’s more noticeable in those who experience long periods of homelessness.
Now, I’d like to preface this short statement with a fairly large disclaimer. I have very limited experience with those who find themselves homeless, and I certainly wouldn’t profess to understand the many reasons why it happens. It would be reasonable to say however, that the causes behind each case vary, so I just wanted to consider one possible example.
Often, we only see what’s on the surface. The person doesn’t have housing because they don’t have the money. We might determine that they’re lazy. Perhaps we see that some take large amounts of recreational drugs. What we can’t see, is the story behind it. What series of events have led them to this point?
Maybe they’ve been continually discouraged from doing anything useful in life, and not encouraged by what they’ve done well. Many don’t have a stable upbringing, being shipped between different parents, grandparents and care workers. They don’t have someone close they can turn to for comfort and advice, so they feel they can’t offer it themselves, or offer any other useful attribute to the world for that matter. I often think about how I might have turned out if I had been placed in a similar situation.
As I’m writing, and as more thoughts come to my mind, I realise that I’ll never be able to provide a perfect answer to the entitled question. As humans, we’re not perfect, which is why the world exists in the very imperfect state it sits in today. We do a lot that’s right, which creates beauty, but also a lot that’s wrong, or mistaken.
The Perfect Community idea seemed floored from the start, and whilst the idea of Psychology/Introspective classes could be useful to help someone understand their thoughts and define their purpose; as I’ve alluded to towards the end of this post, that must surely be backed up by an environment of mutual uplifting and encouragement; using our defined principles to guide each other in the path to what’s good. What we define as “good” could be disputed, but that’s a whole other subject which I won’t delve into here.
This leads me back to my starting point. At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that I would have loved to offer my brother something that I think I would have wanted; that is, to develop skills in Motorsport at an age where the brain is more malleable. I quickly realised he didn’t want this, and I accepted that. We wouldn’t expect others to have the same passions as ourselves. But that’s also not to say we mustn’t put effort into defining and establishing common ground between those we’re close to if we care to mutually instil a close relationship.
And whilst it can be fun to theorise on what we might do if presented with the responsibility of making far impacting decisions, I personally think it would be far more satisfying to consider where we are in this present moment, and find avenues in which we can be helpful to those we love and appreciate, and ourselves to some degree, rather than focusing on far reaching problems across the world which we’ll never have the power to single handedly solve.
JW Blog 