Does Personal Change Bring About Political Change?

Image by Lulu Vision via Flickr

In an earlier post I asked the question "Can you really make a difference?". Most readers agreed that the little things we do can all add up and become big things. It would seem that Derrick Jensen doesn't necessarily share this opinion:

WOULD ANY SANE PERSON think dumpster diving would have stopped Hitler, or that composting would have ended slavery or brought about the eight-hour workday, or that chopping wood and carrying water would have gotten people out of Tsarist prisons, or that dancing naked around a fire would have helped put in place the Voting Rights Act of 1957 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

Then why now, with all the world at stake, do so many people retreat into these entirely personal “solutions”?

uncompromise.wordpress.com, Forget Shorter Showers – why personal change does not equal political change

I have to say I agree. It doesn't feel that just making changes in your own lifestyle is enough. We ALL need to be agitating for change at a higher level.

What do you think?