Another day, another shooting, which is literally what life on Earth has become.  Everyone has their opinions on why and what to do about it, and mostly the people who could do something don’t really do anything at all.  They just talk about how they are The Ones Who Know All The Answers.

And for every One Who Knows All The Answers there is an equal and opposite One Who Knows That Those Answers Are Wrong.

Nearly every problem that plagues society stems from people thinking they KNOW THINGS.  Things that must be true because they were told to them by someone else who knows things.  Absolute things.  Unquestionable things.  Things which must be protected and enforced and never, ever doubted.

We’ve stopped learning.  We’ve stopped doing.  We’ve stopped thinking.  We only know.  We only take the correct information, reject the rest, and live our lives protecting and pushing the THINGS WE KNOW.

Only, that’s not how humanity progresses.  Knowing things is good, but knowing things doesn’t drive growth and improvement.  Knowing things is the bonus that results from the learning and doing and thinking.  It’s the learning and doing and thinking that move life along.  And usually that means learning that we didn’t know what we once thought we knew.

You want peace?  Learn about it.  Think about it.  And do something about it.  And reward other people for that.  Vote for people who learn and do and think, not people who know that they are right.  Employ people who learn and do and think, not people who know how the job should be done.  Befriend and love people who learn and do and think, not people who know how you should live your life.  And above all, RAISE CHILDREN WHO LEARN AND DO AND THINK, not children who only know the things you want them to know.

Stop rewarding people for what they KNOW.  Stop making heroes of people for what they KNOW.  Stop talking about what you KNOW.

Go learn things.  Learn about people.  Learn about the world.  Learn about history and science and art and religion and that weird thing you heard about on the radio one time.  Learn how things work.  Learn skills.  Learn weird skills.  Learn how to use weird skills.  Hang out with people who learn.  Talk to other people who like learning things.  Stop asking people what they know and ask what they want to learn.

Think about things.  Think about what those things mean.  Think about what those meanings mean.  Think about what others think.  Think about what others think you think.  Think about things that you think are strange.  Talk to people about the things they think about.   Find people who think about things you’ve never thought about before.

And then do things.  Do nice things.  Do hard things.  Do fun things.  Do scary things.  Do things you thought you would never do.  Do things you promised someone you would do.  Do things you promised someone you would never do.  Do something that you think will improve the world.  Find people to do things with.  Do things with people who do things you’ve never done.

And in the end, you’ll change.  You’ll become better.

Want the world to change?

You have to start.