Society places norms and templates onto people of which many of us often do not question. Our society is based on a market system run for profit, so by simply participating in this system our lives can easily become money orientated, rather than community and resource orientated. This creates a fundamental conflict between our needs and our lifestyle. We may then suppress our true selves, and become unhappy.

As the source to many of our current world ills, including for example; international wars, poverty and widespread environmental destruction, I believe all of us associated with modern industrial societies have a responsibility to question our world outlooks and lifestyles. People are suffering and in poverty due to the way we are living. There are many alternative, sustainable ways of inhabiting this planet and structuring our society to ‘the modern way’ associated with mainstream Western society. We just have to pluck up the courage to open our eyes and see them. We humans are very socially orientated and we feel good when we help each other, so I suggest we help each other to open our Being to a brighter future.

Awareness of issues is the first step, without action there is no physical change. We contribute to the world in all that we do, through such things as the emotions and thoughts that we spread as well as our physical actions. Change begins with ourselves. As Gandhi said we need to be the change that we want to see in the world, and violence breeds violence. For effective activism in pursuit of things such as equality and justice, I believe we must adopt these attributes into our daily lives. Protests can raise awareness of issues, but I question whether I see them to be a good tactic in resolving them. From my experiences in life I believe that the best way to resolve issues is to nurture connection and understanding between people, I feel this is best done by interacting with others and reaching people on their own level, not by perhaps forcing an opinion on them, which is what some protests collectively do. I believe in peaceful resolution, and see the means of spreading this in daily life by being the change we want see, as well as teaching and learning from each other.