Even with the best intentions no one has the right to impose a system of thought or action on anyone against their will. Ironically, that is exactly what has happened to all of us as we were born into this world.

It is in some ways no different than being born into slavery, in the sense that we come into the world having no say in the system that will govern our lives, and we spend our most vulnerable years being programmed to become obedient citizens and uphold the status quo.

As children we learn that the double-standard is pretty much the rule in virtually all situations, and while there seem to be thousands of problems in the world, the one thing all problems have in common is apathy and indifference.

The older generation has already been through the school of hard knocks and become bitter, skeptical, intolerant, or what have you—the end result being that most people have given up on trying to make the world a better place and turned their attention to finding a better place in the world.

While most people are busy pushing and shoving each other aside trying to “get their share” no one is taking responsibility for the world we share.

Now, I understand that self interest is important for people’s well-being, but our selfishness as a species has become blinding.

It isn’t enough that we’re consuming the world’s renewable resources faster than the world can cope with, or that we’re depleting the world’s limited resources as fast as we can dig them up.

We also pile up mountains of debt for our children to conduct wars with nations we’ve given up trying to be friends with.

People need to wake up and realize that no one is going to fix the world for them.

The people who have seized control of our world are abusing the authority they’ve been given, ignoring the responsibilities we’ve entrusted them with.

I’m not just talking about our presidents and prime ministers, here; I am talking about the people who are given authority in all walks of life that are exploiting the system for their own benefit.

I’m even talking about the customers who abuse the courtesy of employees to get special attention or service.

Every single abuse of the public trust is passed on to another human being, and while people are complaining about how they are being mistreated, each person who uses their misfortune as an excuse to abuse the public trust is helping to destroy the world we live in.

Not all at once, not today, but almost every day, somewhere, for someone, it manifests as robbery, assault, rape, murder.

That is how it works.

The end of the world comes one person at a time. Every time a person dies, the world loses something irreplaceable.

There have always been those who believe that the world would be a better place without some people in it, and there have always been people willing to kill anyone who gets in their way.

We have all been one of those people, at some point in our lives, for some part of our lives.

The worst possible human being exists within all of us, as does the best. We can choose to understand this, and we can choose what sort of human being we will allow ourselves to be.

We can choose to be weak, we can choose to be insignificant, or we can choose to be powerful and extraordinary.

Those choices are ours, and we make them by doing what those choices call for. But, no one is going to make the right choice if no one cares.

The only thing that people need, really, is something that most people have—or can get access to—and the only thing they need to do is stop taking it for granted.

It’s called a mirror.

Take a good look, because that is who is going to change the world—or not—and that is who you have to fight to succeed.