Change

No wonder it is said the pen is mightier than the sword.  My personal view is that it may be so in the long term but short term if all other things are equal, a bigger, stronger brute will overpower.  Once the dust settles reason may prevail, but I am starting to think the age of reason has past and the age of brute force is making hay.
Anyway I read something Leo Tolstoy said that rang a bell with me. “Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.”
The cry I hear a lot of these days is “we need to make the word a better place.”  I do not think anyone would disagree with that.  The methodology differs though.  What gets me is I see people so angry.  People ready to force change on another.  People who believe they know best with potential catastrophic consequences for others.  People who promote something with a seemingly “hang the consequences” attitude.  Those consequences see people killed, towns destroyed (world wars 1 & 2 showed us that sometimes destruction is necessary to halt the march of evil) and hard earned stolen.  To me so often the cure is as bad as the disease.
I must admit I have trouble with the double standards I see at play.  There seems to be a real willingness to make me comply with certain beliefs but those propagating and promoting them often do not do them unless under a spotlight.
What Tolstoy said is to me what needs to happen.  Changes that last are internal rather than just external.  Internal changes invariably work their way out to external.  What I am is who I am while what I say can differ radically from who I am.
In our system there comes a time when I make a decision concerning who I want in power.  In the meantime, I want to be what I proclaim.  I may espouse treating others with dignity and respect, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating.  If that is who I am then circumstances will not make me otherwise.  If on the other hand treating others with dignity and respect will not get me what I want, then who I am will come to the fore.
I am a part of humanity so I reckon me changing is a good place to start.