Making a Difference

Peter Lavrov issued a challenge to all who have enjoyed the blessings of intellectual or creative gifts-- "Neither literature, nor art, nor science saves one from immoral indifference. By themselves they do not include nor cause progress. They only furnish it with tools... But only that writer, artist or scholar serves progress who does all that he could to apply his energies to the dissemination and strengthening of the civilization of his time, who struggles with evil, embodies his artistic ideals, scientific truths, philosophical ideas, publicistic strivings in creations that are fully infused with the life of his times. Whoever does less... [whoever] forgets about the immense amount of evil and ignorance, against which he should be struggling, might as well be anything-- a skilled artist, an uncommon scholar, a brilliant publicist--but he excludes himself from the ranks of conscious actors of historical progress." -- quoted in Philip Pomper, Peter Lavrov and the Russian Revolutionary Movement (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972),

pp.102-103.

So what are you waiting for in your ivory towers? Put those tools to work and help better our world! Most of my fellow bloggers are trying to do just that. For those who prefer mocking the "do-gooders" as ineffective, O.K. Can you do better yourself? Constructive criticism may help improve things, careless, cynical mockery for its own sake is only cheap entertainment.

Today's quiz: "Who's the guy in the picture?" [hint-- it's not Peter Lavrov]