Courage

In my philosophy class, we've been reading Machiavelli, Hobbes, Bacon, and now Marx.  Talk about having a pessimistic view of mankind.  Each of these writers had a different take on our motivations, which apparently are materialistic and petty.  When looking at modern society though, especially politicians, it can be hard not to agree with them on some of their views. Money, power, glory, these are all common themes in the motivations of the people we highlight in American society as the "dream life."  The American dream has shifted into the nicest "stuff," the most renowned job, the most control/influence, but what about the old American dream?

What happened to just wanting a wholesome family? To aspiring to have enough money to stay home rather than enough money to take extravagant vacations? I'm not saying extravagant vacations wouldn't be nice, but where are our priorities? Do we do things because they're right? Because they'll make society better? Or do we do them for capitalistic reasons? Do we do them because we're told?  Or because of our reputation?
Why do we go to school? To learn? Not usually, but it should be the reason. What if people did things for internal rewards like self-satisfaction rather than money or reputation? Things would be so different. Politicians would be more focused on serving their constituents rather than their salary. Students would be inspired by their teachers. They would want to learn their material rather than just getting through it. Employees would work because they like their job not because their getting paid. People would help each other out because they would feel better about themselves. Our pride would come from these parts of our lives.
I know it's an idealistic and seemingly impossible concept, but what if it wasn't? What if we each strove to do that rather than following the current mob mentality? When I was home, I found a letter I wrote to myself on March 15, 2012 - almost exactly a year ago. The one line that stood out to me the most was "don't let the fact that the world is so big keep you from changing the small world around you." What if I followed my own advice? What if that was our goal? To better the small environment around us to the best of our ability. What if we were all that courageous? That would be pretty awesome.