There are a lot of problems to solve in the world that feel virtually insurmountable. Homelessness. Climate change. The amount of waste we generate. Our consumption of natural resources. Racism. All you have to do is walk through a Whole Foods parking lot in California and do a scan of the bumper stickers to have this list clearly laid out for you.
And I generally subscribe to the theory that everyone making a small impact to help one of these issues can add up to be something seismic. One person replacing a single-use water bottle with a reusable water bottle doesn't help very much, but if everyone on the planet does it, then that has a huge impact. And that step toward making a huge impact starts with individual action.
But there's also this great scene in Apple TV+'s series WeCrashed that I think perfectly epitomizes where some of the frustration or annoyance I have with this theory comes from. WeCrashed follows WeWork founder Adam Neumann and his wife Rebekah on their journey to turn the co-working startup into an international movement to help "elevate the world's consciousness." The main challenge with this journey, though, was that WeWork was burning through over $70 million a week in 2019, a cash depletion rate that was unsurprisingly completely unsustainable and impressively reckless. In one particularly tense exchange in the show, one of Adam's most senior employees raises this concern about WeWork's ridiculous burn rate, saying the company has no chance of succeeding if drastic measures to cut costs are not taken. Adam, clearly understanding the exigency of this moment, responds, "Fine, I get it. We'll eliminate the snacks and free lunch in the break room." Visibly annoyed, the employee fires back, "We're not going bankrupt because of cantaloupe."
This is the piece that is hard for me to reconcile when trying to be "part of the solution" in fighting these major worldwide problems. Sure, I can print my four-page memo on double-sided paper rather than single-sided paper to help save 1/50,000th of a tree, but single-sided printers aren't even remotely relevant as a reason for why the Amazon is getting cut down. You're certainly doing more good than bad by printing double-sided, but it's not the cantaloupe in the break room that is making the company bankrupt.
And I think the times I get frustrated or annoyed with people fighting for these causes is when I feel like they're trying to overly shame me or make me feel guilty for occasionally having a piece of cantaloupe. I get that every individual action adds up, but they add up to nothing if we're not directionally correct where it actually matters.
And this is what I feel like is the fair compromise to ask of anyone in fighting these major issues: just be directionally correct. I don't think everyone has to be vegan, but I think it would be great if everyone was at least more conscious of how much meat they ate and tried to cut back when possible. I don't think everyone has to start blowing their nose into reusable hankies, but I think it would be great if everyone tried to never use paper plates or plastic cups in their house.
Because if we're all directionally correct — and yes, "directionally" includes continually progressing in that direction over time — then we'll get there. We'll sort these monumental problems out. But we're not going to solve them at all if we stay so committed to shaming anyone who eats the cantaloupe.
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