If you take each tiny ethical action and add it to the next tiny ethical action and continue to do this across the board – eventually you’ll have a huge tsunami of moral behaviour which has the power to effect great change.
Unfortunately this is also true in reverse. All those tiny and seemingly insignificant immoral actions that we all perform – the white lies, the small cheats – also add up and engulf everything, but not in a good way.
Every single thing that every single one of us does all of the time matters in the overall scheme of things. There is no such thing as a deed – good or bad –that doesn’t have some effect somewhere.
Scary? Maybe.
But heartening too when you think about it.
Butterfly Effects for Change – Part 6 – The Fruits of Their Labour
On July 19th, 1984, 21 year old Mary Manning, a cashier working at the Henry Street branch of Dunnes Stores in Dublin, refused to handle two Outspan grapefruit. Mary Manning did this on the orders of her union as a protest against the system of apartheid in operation in South Africa at that time. Manning was suspended for her actions and ten of her colleagues went on strike to protest against her treatment.
This refusal to handle South African produce by Manning and her colleagues was not well received by their employers and resulted in a strike that lasted almost three years – a very brave action in a time of great unemployment.
Eventually though, the Dunnes Stores workers prevailed and the Irish government agreed to ban the importing of South African fruit and vegetables until the apartheid regime was overthrown.
Today in Johannesburg, a street is named after Mary Manning and she and her colleagues have been personally commended by Nelson Mandela and his successor, Thabo Mbeki.
As Margaret Mead, the well-known anthropologist said –
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Related articles
- http://cake1983.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/strike/
- http://www.metroeireann.com/article/the-dunnes-stores-staff-who-stood,2019
- Kader Asmal (cedarlounge.wordpress.com)
- SAfrica to open new museum honoring Nelson Mandela (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
Wonderful!
Heartening!
Thanks, Patricia!