I was asked recently, in response to a comment I posted on someone else's blog, what I am doing to effect positive change in society. I answered the question there (see this link), and also addressed the same issue in a comment on another blog (here), but it does raise a broader issue, which I thought I should address here.

Let me start with the story - it's a parable, really, though it's not in the Bible - of the babies in the river. I don't remember where I first heard or read it, and I wasn't able to find a definitive source for it, but I did find a couple of versions of it on the Internet, here and here.

Briefly, the story goes as follows:

A group of people are standing on a riverbank when they see a baby going by in the water, struggling to stay afloat and breathe. Some of them jump into the water and pull the baby out, only to look back and see another one coming downstream, and then another, and another. The rescuers continue to reenter the water over and over to pull each baby out of the river.

Meanwhile, another group starts to run away along the riverbank, heading upstream.

"Where are you going?" cry the rescuers. "We need you to stay here and help us save these babies!"

The others respond, "We're going up the river to find out who is throwing all these babies into the water, and stop them!"

In a similar vein is the slogan, "Give a person to fish, and you feed the person for a day. Teach the person to fish, and you feed the person for life." The point of both stories is obvious, of course. The story describes two different approaches to solving a problem: relieving the effects, or eliminating the cause.

Many liberals and progressives spend a lot of time, energy, thought, and money on projects directed at relieving the effects of the economic and social injustices in our society. Most, if not all, of the progressive NGOs are directed at the same goal. It is hard to find fault with their intentions, any more than one would fault the folks who are pulling the babies out of the river. Indeed, there is an argument to be made that at least in cases of short-term emergencies, such efforts are not only laudable but necessary. But in my view, they are not sufficient, and taken to the extreme, they are actually part of the problem, because they drain precious resources and attention from the far more vital task of addressing the root causes of our social ills.

As a socialist, I believe that we cannot cure poverty, violence, drug addiction, war, environmental damage, lack of access to health care, or any of the other evils that surround us without addressing their root cause, which is the capitalist profit system. I also believe that it is inherently impossible to reform capitalism, through regulation and legislation, sufficiently to create a clean, green world in which peace, plenty, and justice prevail. Instead, it is necessary to eliminate capitalism altogether, and replace it with socialism.

Needless to say, that cannot happen unless and until a critical mass of people embrace that cause and devote their lives to making it a reality. That is why, given the limited time and energy I have available to try to make a better world, I have chosen to devote it to efforts to persuade others to share my view in this regard (including but not limited to this blog).

So I'm running up the river as fast as I can. I'm not knocking the folks who are jumping in the water, but I'm hoping at least some of you who are reading this will come up the river with me instead. Thanks for listening.