10 Ways to Change the World in Your 20s
Have you ever had the feeling you had just seen the next big thing? I was at an author speech this week and believe I watched something very unusual. A crowd of Young people(18-22) who were paying rapt attention as someone urged them to take responsibility. It was amazing and gratifying. After years of feeling pressured by the Status Quo environmentalists, this young woman Libuse Binder, showed them the need in a way that made them want to sign up now.
Her Book, 10 Ways to Change the World in Your 20s is a refreshing “lead the horse to water” approach that gets these kids’ attention. I have written a short review of the event to use. If I should need to make it longer or shorter, or if it would be better to include the book in the review, let me know. I have run some articles in The Rapidian, and a couple of events.
Jeff Darling
Website: Science Perspectives
Libuse Binder visited Grand Rapids April4&5 Lecturing at GVSU and GRCC campuses about her message of “Making a Change in the World in Your Twenties”
10 Ways to Change the World in your 20s-Tour
“10 Ways to Change the World in your 20s” is a pretty lengthy title, and a pretty strong claim. The author, Libuse Binder, acknowledges this in her opening statement. In fact she makes a bit of a clumsy joke about it. I think that it is perhaps her artistry with the apparently clumsy joke that makes this woman the artist of the year when it comes to penetrating the armor of apathy that has plagued this “generation of the electronic idol.”
Having attended the lecture, I think there was a fair enough sample of the book’s contents to review both in a reasonable light. The fact that most pertinent tables, list and facts were shown at least in brief gives a fair first representation. The fact that we had the author expressing what things about these tables and lists were pertinent to her mission (Her word) should put us in a position of advantage over those who only read the words.
Libuse’s mission, she makes it clear, is to empower, not preach. She has gone to great lengths to avoid imitating what she feels are the errors of the past. “In dealing with this generation, I avoid the word ‘should’,” she says with a smile.
A typical entry in Libuse’s “lists of things” with appropriate verb, (to empower, to resource, to change,) etc, would be:
Bring your values extend life of useful items
Vote with your dollar educate yourself
Eat real food speak up
Every word on the lists meant to be a guide to action, without a
should. Libuse is banking on the "Don't say should" plan as an effective Vaccine against the Tree-Hugger finger-pointing of the past. I hope the strategy proves to be a helpful as it is hopeful.
At the talk I attended, Libuse was careful to make eye contact with every person in the room, and for those representing her target, she stayed in eye contact mode a lot. It is clear the idea of gathering the best information, presenting it in steps, then guiding gently to where the ball is so they can go “find” it, has resonated with a generation.
The book and the author offer a simple method, beginning with the smaller steps, interlaced with accomplishments by those who have followed that path, to larger. Each step has its own prices and rewards, and she is quite honest about it all. I did not sense any sugar coating about the realities of the commitments she was endorsing. It also was clear that each possibility had other coaches farther down the road to show the next way. It played like a big community of pathfinders operating together.
The young people I was watching were mesmerized, by the way .All in all I see a bright future for this book, its author and its concepts. I have listened for years as every manager, educator, sociologist and NGO has thrashed about, seeking the “golden ring” of a method of getting through to this generation. I believe a Guru is upon us, and her name is Libuse Binder.
