Opinion – Michael França: Our little light, let’s let it shine

The main legacy we will leave in the world is not marked by the social positions we have attained, but by the impact we have had on people’s lives. Just as we inherited the repercussions of our actions from our ancestors, we will leave the fruits of our actions for future generations.

The role of each of us in a society goes beyond what many have done. Our purpose here is greater than pursuing our own interests. Not that this is a problem. After all, it is self-interest that moves the world.

But we can move forward together with a little more solidarity and compassion for others. Caring for people should not only be seen as an expression of human kindness, but also as a means of filling that existential void that many of us feel, as well as being one of the best ways to induce substantive social progress.

In addition, we need to seek to influence the transformations we want. Refraining from facing what we do not agree with means letting inertia lead to the natural reproduction of what is set.

Everyone, regardless of age or social class, has the potential to accomplish great things in their own stories and in those of others. However, circumstances often make it difficult for us to achieve all that we could.

It is quite common that, despite the effort, several of our actions do not have the desired effect. This often generates a feeling of frustration. However, there is no room for hopelessness.

In part, building a more prosperous society needs to be seen as an ongoing process whereby citizens come to assume greater responsibilities while at the same time seeking to use all their talents to help one another.

In this collective construction, a good objective to be pursued is to seek to develop initiatives that generate the greatest possible social benefit at the lowest cost and, for this to occur, we also need to assertively deal with various dilemmas that involve our choices.

Each citizen has different interests and opinions regarding the set of decisions that affect society. In this context, the current process of including individuals from different social groups in the most varied spaces tends to contribute to the generation of better perspectives and to the conception of new proposals.

With regard to the formulation of public policies, it is known that the success of many programs is usually in the details. Thus, the incorporation of different worldviews in the formulation of new interventions tends to help in the process of designing more effective initiatives.

However, despite good intentions, many initiatives aimed at impacting people’s lives end up not working as expected. Evaluating them and trying to discover those that are offering the greatest return to society is one of the paths to be followed.

We need to go beyond our own beliefs and confront them with facts and evidence. Widespread speculation about which interventions work alone won’t get you very far. In the end, what should matter is the impact that a given initiative has had on people’s lives, not our value judgment.

Lavoisier already said that “in nature nothing is created, nothing is lost, everything is transformed”. With this perspective, I tend to think that, when we start from this brief journey called life, the only part of us that will be left on Earth will be the resonance of the transforming force that our actions had in the trajectories of people and future generations.

The title is a tribute to the song “This Little Light of Mine”, by Raffi Cavoukian and Kenneth Whiteley, performed by Odetta.