I do believe that we can change much in this world, and running is only one of many strategies, and if we align ourselves with powerful positive forces, then the change can be powerful and positive. The belief that such a disposition is naive (which is a rather ubiquitous belief) is a self-fulfilling prophecy that tragically lets the would-be doers off the hook, encouraging fatalism and apathy and the perpertuation of many awful situations. Of course the changes we can make are very often not the changes we want to make. We can't make changes for other people, at least not where their own agency is required, and changes are most often not grand. So we must approach change as a way of life, not as a series of things to be crossed off a list. We can collectively tear down mountains this way, the way wind and water do.

In another note, I'm never surprised (often saddened but never surprised) at how much nastiness there is in this world. The only broadly uniting value of the society in which I live is self-interest, and self interest when unchecked always leads to horrendous abuses. Why wouldn't people be constantly doing awful things? One of my own personal mountains to build is something better than self-interest to unite us. Who's in?