Learned Helplessness

I agree with the quote"When we shrink from the world, our souls shrink, too."

It is hard to stand up for what you believe in, it is hard to be the one held accountable to be the change in the world. We need to understand that we are not merely visitors in this world. This is our home, our life, our choice,and our role to make life better for ourselves and the people around us. We seek religion to find ways to save our souls, we look at others to see what they are doing to save themselves.In actuality all you need to do is look at yourself, who you see in the mirror when you wake up in the morning like Loeb states in the book is what matters. The beauty is always in the eye of the beholder, as an individual you need to be one to see the potential within you.

There were times when i stayed silent over public issues that affected me. I knew that if i said something, did something, it would make a change make a difference. But like many others i doubted myself, i doubted my voice, i did not think that anyone would listen to what i might have to say, and never stopped to think that what i bring to the table might actually be valuable. It's like what Loeb says " Self assertion requires us not only to modify our outlook and behavior but also to confront a bewildering and often disorienting maze of institutions and individuals, powers and principalities."

As a human being living in a society where you expect others to do everything for you and hand everything to you, it is hard to find the need to speak up. We expect others to just do it for us, we think that since there are already so many activists out there who are in a better position to voice their opinion, that one day they will get a chance to speak about the needs that I knows needs to be addressed.
It is powerful how big of a change one person can make, and when you bring together a whole community to stand up together to make a difference it is even more POWERFUL. When you take the time to do this, you get a better understanding of who you are, and what your values and morals are.
Loeb talks about a doctor who works in the low income clinic who said, " Seeing the struggles of others helps me to be true to myself."
Speaking up always makes a difference, there are others in the world who voices are taken away from them, they would do anything to have the right to Speak, and we don't utilize or value our voice.
When we don't actively participate in the world, in our community we give up the right to Complain, to whine about the "idiots" out there who run around trying to change others lives, when in reality We who are not involving ourselves in the civic life are "idiots" .