There's a popular phrase when people talk about improving themselves: "Be the change you want to see in the world." It's attributed to Gandhi, although that's pretty suspect (source) and there's no proof of him ever saying it (welcome to the internet!), and it appears on bumper stickers, motivational screenshots, and Facebook posts of girls aged 17-22.
Since it's not Gandhi, and there's no really telling who popularized the phrase in the first place, you might think that I'm in the process of making fun of it and our culture for making "something" out of things that are really nothing. But that's not what I'm gonna do. Instead of being my normal angry-old-man self, I'm going to actually support this quotation and give an example.
Everyone seems to think the world is trending in the wrong direction: gun deaths are up, religious insanity is *way* up, intolerance of LGBT/women/minority rights is somehow both up and down at the same time, and major media news fills us in on exclusively bad things, making it so that I don't even know if the claims I just made are true or only feel true.
Everyone is afraid of everything: We don't talk to strangers on the street, we don't let our kids trick-or-treat without walking 20 feet behind them, we lojack our family members, we get the chip-and-signature credit cards for extra security, we don't send kids out to play lest they get kidnapped, we drive them everywhere, we lock our doors, we buy security systems, we password protect our computers and phones, we use facial recognition software and fingerprint technology so no one can access our text messages, and we no longer collectively trust the police.
I'm not saying any/all of those things are deserved or undeserved, but keep in mind that we do all of those things, but how many of us actually look at our bank accounts to make sure there are no erroneous charges? Did you do more than go "oh man, that sucks" when Target let your credit card information get stolen? Do any of us think twice before accepting the details of an app-download, not caring that it tracks our every move? Furthermore, I'd be willing to bet I could steal your social security card out of your home before I could figure out the password to your laptop - heaven forbid I ever access your photos from the Allegheny National Forest.
Here's the point: I choose to believe that people are predominantly good.
We've been hosting guests on AirBnB for a few months and have had nothing but good experiences. The only negative has been that we had a guy who was too shy to tell us the cat had puked in his room.
Every time we tell friends about this, the immediate response is something like "aren't you afraid they'll rob you?" or "What if they're a psycho?" or "I heard someone got attacked on that site." You're probably right - people have been robbed, been psychopaths, and been attacked through using AirBnB. People have also been robbed, attacked, and met psychopaths in hotels, motels, public buses, sidewalks, shopping malls, sporting events, airplanes, cars, libraries, beaches, houses, schools, parks, swimming pools, grocery stores, parking lots, and literally every other place you can possibly go. You can't just stay in your house forever and never see another human for fear of bad things happening. Living your life in fear is not living your life.
So we choose to trust people. It's possible that we get burned one day, but the odds are pretty strongly in our favor. In the meantime we've met people from Belgium, Guinea, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, New Zealand, Germany, and more.
We want the world to be a better place, and it will never be a better place if no one trusts other people.
Since it's not Gandhi, and there's no really telling who popularized the phrase in the first place, you might think that I'm in the process of making fun of it and our culture for making "something" out of things that are really nothing. But that's not what I'm gonna do. Instead of being my normal angry-old-man self, I'm going to actually support this quotation and give an example.
Everyone seems to think the world is trending in the wrong direction: gun deaths are up, religious insanity is *way* up, intolerance of LGBT/women/minority rights is somehow both up and down at the same time, and major media news fills us in on exclusively bad things, making it so that I don't even know if the claims I just made are true or only feel true.
Everyone is afraid of everything: We don't talk to strangers on the street, we don't let our kids trick-or-treat without walking 20 feet behind them, we lojack our family members, we get the chip-and-signature credit cards for extra security, we don't send kids out to play lest they get kidnapped, we drive them everywhere, we lock our doors, we buy security systems, we password protect our computers and phones, we use facial recognition software and fingerprint technology so no one can access our text messages, and we no longer collectively trust the police.
I'm not saying any/all of those things are deserved or undeserved, but keep in mind that we do all of those things, but how many of us actually look at our bank accounts to make sure there are no erroneous charges? Did you do more than go "oh man, that sucks" when Target let your credit card information get stolen? Do any of us think twice before accepting the details of an app-download, not caring that it tracks our every move? Furthermore, I'd be willing to bet I could steal your social security card out of your home before I could figure out the password to your laptop - heaven forbid I ever access your photos from the Allegheny National Forest.
Here's the point: I choose to believe that people are predominantly good.
We've been hosting guests on AirBnB for a few months and have had nothing but good experiences. The only negative has been that we had a guy who was too shy to tell us the cat had puked in his room.
Every time we tell friends about this, the immediate response is something like "aren't you afraid they'll rob you?" or "What if they're a psycho?" or "I heard someone got attacked on that site." You're probably right - people have been robbed, been psychopaths, and been attacked through using AirBnB. People have also been robbed, attacked, and met psychopaths in hotels, motels, public buses, sidewalks, shopping malls, sporting events, airplanes, cars, libraries, beaches, houses, schools, parks, swimming pools, grocery stores, parking lots, and literally every other place you can possibly go. You can't just stay in your house forever and never see another human for fear of bad things happening. Living your life in fear is not living your life.
So we choose to trust people. It's possible that we get burned one day, but the odds are pretty strongly in our favor. In the meantime we've met people from Belgium, Guinea, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, New Zealand, Germany, and more.
We want the world to be a better place, and it will never be a better place if no one trusts other people.
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