This is about to be perhaps a bit of a guilt trip which may- or may not make you rethink your life.

Those who immediately hit backspace after reading that sentence are the very people I am absolutely disgusted with; those who prefer rationalizing the world instead of creating change...you know, because its not MY job.

The other day I passed a massive, sprawling mansion with a very well groomed yard. It was spectacularly breathtaking, and planted right in the heart of very very Christian territory. Next to it, I noticed an overgrown shack that had the front porch caved in. The yard was an absolute mess, and I believed it to be abandoned...until a family strolled out. With children. At that moment, I lost it. In town there were ornate churches next to gucci stores...and very, incredibly literally they were not helping their neighbor. (I am not just angry at christians, but I could probably synthesize a Martin Luther style list of my complaints)

"Can't help those who don't want it." "They must be bad people." "Its how the world works." "I just don't have enough to help out." "They'll come to expect it."

OH MY wkdbgjebcjewhcowdh SHUT THE MUFF UP It is not our duty to judge or discriminate. A human muffing life is a human life. There are no bad, undeserving people: there are only people who were born into circumstances which have shaped them. They had as much of a chance of becoming lazy, inconsiderate people as you were being born into your cozy life.

That's not even my real frustration, my true frustration is with the fact that we allow situations to perpetuate themselves because...you know...its not our job to do anything. We rationalize it because we don't think we can change it; its what we were taught to do. Think of yourself first. Because there aren't people starving around the world while we throw away half platefuls of food. Of course, we've heard that enough we're completely desensitized to it.

I'm tired of self centered inconsiderate people. Done. With. It. We don't need to be the first human beings to see a flipping movie for $17 a ticket, we don't need to get our hair done, have a nice car...its all so wasteful and excessive. Its made me physically I'll for several days now, and I'm yet to sleep.

But once were done, were just going to click out of this and go about our day.

Well, at the end of my rant, those of you who are left....thank you. I'm designing a website; social network per say for good people. People who are conscientious of others needs. I'm not asking for anyone to give everything up and begin a new life, but I'm hoping to create a community for good people- regardless of race, religion, etc who are seeking to constantly improve themselves and the world around them, people who have given up hope and fallen into the very society we despise. There are others who are equally dissatisfied.

I believe when you get genuine good people together, something awesome will happen naturally. Currently, I only have a tumblr prepared

Help?

You sound like you needed to rant, and ranting has helped exert some of your emotional heat. I know there are people who are out there to help you on your quest, which I believe too be a bit too broad to achieve quantitative change, but rather seeks to concentrate on people of the "slacktivist" internet age to share ideas and feelings and such. I'm sorry if that bothers you, but this is what I am reading from "something awesome will happen naturally". I think that if you believe in change that much, you should do something like get Extreme Makeover:Home edition to notice the "shabbier" house, or if you're able to, work at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter... start a fundraiser for x cause or even volunteer at an animal shelter. Because that's what people who want change in their communities do. The As for discrimination, I don't think it's your place to discriminate the family with the "mansion" either. You don't know if, for example, they won the lottery (or extreme makeover) and they wanted to improve their house instead of gambling. I don't think you should judge them based on how much money they get and where they spend it (instead of donating it, for example). Maybe that area's land is expensive, but their house suffered a fire and they lucked out with the insurance company and added more money to the rebuilding of their house. You just can't know.

I also think that the whole big broad thing you're proposing (which is most likely too too broad, again) stretches against human nature/a single human's natural capacity. I was reading Justice by Michael Sandel, who is a professor at Harvard. He also provides his coursework on his Justice/ethics class online, and I think this is something you should take a look at before emoting all over the internet - taking a hard look at issues where ethics, judgment calls my humans, fairness etc come into play in the world... not thinking based on feelings but thought based on quantitative and rational logic. It shouldn't tell you what to judge or how to judge, but to weigh all sides and basically how to judge better. I believe there is a section that references Dunbar's number - a number proposed by sociology that limits the general social circle of one primate/human. Obviously we know more than 150 - 300 people in our lives, and there are so many more people in the world, but we generally dont think about the billions of people outside this circle on a regular basis as people. I really hope I am not mixing this up with a video I saw on TED. If I remember correctly, this idea correlates with how many people we can empathize with - you generally don't empathize with the "think of the starving kids in Africa" until you "meet" one - which might mean listen to their story through a blog or watch a video of them showing their life. However, they'll exit the circle as soon as they're pushed out, especially when daily life comes back (dealing with mom, family, coworkers, boss) and if they don't reenter that circle. I doubt you skype with starving-African-child-A on a daily basis (though you might mentor a child in a underresourced school district on a weekly basis if you're a Learn To Be tutor... again, smaller scale volunteering and action).

I hope you don't feel like I am discrediting your feelings - it sucks loosing sleep over busy thoughts in your head, how unfair the world is, etc. I'm not saying you have to go down the path of Buddha (though you should read his life story), but I feel that your feelings are clouding some of your most rational judgment, and hindering you from selecting a specific issue to work on and affect change.

: I have studied religious education for 5 years, and his story is quite amazing. It wasn't exactly that either...it was the fact that they didn't need it in the first place. We have so much excess, so much greed because we think we deserve more and more. What we don't realize is that we already have everything compared to others, even if we're only living in a 3,000 (still generous) sq. ft. home with a new camry. We don't need 39,000 sq. ft. We don't need three Ashton Martin's [they had two and a BMW in the yard, who knows what was in the garage). I currently volunteer at the humane society, and in the passed I've volunteered...well through the YMCA, SPCA for many years, I've done mission trips around the community and through other states (unfortunately we've never had enough that I could go overseas to help), and of course various soup kitchens, homeless shelters. The problem is even through those types of things, I still have run into greedy, self centered people; people who are doing it because mommy and daddy told them to. Who don't dig into themselves and actually seek to become a better person or care for others. Sometimes this is because of what they see and how negative/depressing ti can be.

It may seem broad right now...but that's because you start broad and narrow it down. First, let's gather people together and create a community; a community can hold us together to help us make the right choice. Help us to not fall into other's ways of life and thinking, or to give up hope. People who can be there to help you out or cheer you on when you're getting close to that breaking point. I would hope to make it community service based at some point, but the first thing to do is bring people together. I promise, there is more to the plan, but if you up front expect things from people, they are less likely to do something. I very much believe in the "pay it forward" effect. If this community can really come to life, then those people we influence can influence others. It can grow, and we can make being a good person a habit.