Prince Charles said recently that his job was to “save the world.” Even if he can’t do it, he may think that by setting himself the task, he can help restore relevance and high purpose to the institution of British Royalty, which is suspect and expensive.

 

What is interesting about his statement is not that it is so grandiose, but that it is so common.

 

Untested, immature and self-regarding people often think it is up to them to save the world. Sitting in their dorm rooms at midnight, minds afire with righteous reading and unfulfilled desire; sitting on the bed at Mom’s house approaching middle age, minds afire with failed projects, desperate for one-step vindication; sitting in the reading room of the British Museum covered in boils, conspiring against people who wouldn’t give him a second thought; trashing SUV’s, killing people and burning houses so animals can run free; fantasizing about their own annihilation and emergence into paradise embraced by a blossoming flower of destruction that will consume hundreds, thousands, millions of non-believers; with minds reaching across empires thousands of years old, teaching the necessity and virtue of murder.

 

They all think they are destined to save the world.

 

But what world is it they think they will save? Not the one they look around and see. That is the world they will need to wreck. The idea that appeals to them places them at the center of creation. Like an infant, they do not see other people as deserving of respect and consideration, but rather as either obstacles or avenues to the easing of their own unhappiness.

 

They inhabit an imaginary world, and it is that imaginary world they imagine saving.

 

This is not to say that there is nothing to be done to save the world. It is to say that no good will come from forcing the world to fit a fantasy. Being selfish and impatient, all one can do is disturb people and cause them harm. What can we do?

 

There is a list of six things you can do to save the world.

 

The first one is to help people out. Help them get what they need to be safe and happy. They might not notice you are doing it. They might not appreciate it. But it will bring happiness into the world if you do it.

 

The second is to behave decently. That means, don’t kill people, don’t lie to them, or steal from them, even if you can rationalize it or make excuses for it. Don’t smash your brains with drink and drugs, because you will waste your life if you do. Don’t pursue wrong sexual activity as a road to happiness, because you will ruin your relationships, cut yourself off from others, and be distracted from what it is that actually can bring lasting happiness.

 

The third one is to refuse to be roused to anger. This does not mean that you should tolerate cruelty or injustice or cultivate a meek good nature that is just okay with all the crap of the world. It means that you maintain courageous calm when faced with difficulty or crisis, and proceed with skill where you can be of help. Sometimes this will mean you take the time to persuade jerks that it is not in their interest to persist in their harmful acts. Sometimes it means you act decisively and vigorously to stop harm.

 

The fourth is joyful effort: making consistent effort to do what’s right despite difficulty, disrespect or danger.

 

The fifth is cultivating a calm, clear mind.

 

The sixth is learning to see the world as it is without the distorting filters and limited perspective we are stuck with as a result of our past non-virtuous acts.

 

A while ago while on patrol, I had a call for two people fighting. It was not a fair fight, a schoolyard scuffle, or a sporting match. The smaller person was getting hurt and although I did not know why they were doing this, I did not need to know why to know it was not okay.  As a cop, you do not have the option of turning away, thinking, Oh well, that’s just their karma. And you can’t say, Hey, somebody should call the cops.

 

Two of us responded to the scene. If we hesitated, the smaller of the two could get killed. When commands did not stop the fight, we grabbed the big fellow and pulled him away.  While he was being assisted to the ground, his opponent began to yell at me about why we were always harassing them, and to get the fuck out of there.

 

At times like that, you really have to know what you are doing. Not just when to move in, or when to wait for more back up, not just how to apply a joint lock and get the cuffs on before someone pulls a baseball bat out of the car and takes a swing. Although, yes, tactical skills are important, and at that point, it’s too late if you have not studied and practiced well.

 

But equally important: you have to know for sure that you are right.  Right to risk your safety to protect someone’s health or save their life; confident that vigorous action to prevent harm is justified, and that standing by when harm is being done is not; sure that being appreciated is nice, but not necessary.

 

We did a generous thing for them. The big fellow did not collect the karma, or the prison sentence, for murdering the smaller one. The smaller one did not die, or spend weeks recovering, or a lifetime disabled.

 

What cops do every day stands in contrast to what the grandiose world-savers do. If you are going to save the world, you will have to at least be able to save real people, nice or not.

 

Grandchildren steal from their own grandparents. Thugs prey upon the vulnerability and kindness of their neighbors. Marketers exploit the desires and credulity of an audience of passive, needy viewers. Oceans get fouled. Water gets rationed.

 

Somehow, real human beings, in Hamlet’s description: “noble in reason, infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action like angels, in apprehension how like gods, the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals” — are willing to be confined in asphalt and concrete prisons, cities, that seem the inevitable vessel of human culture, as if they had sprung fully formed from the black heart of le Corbusier, and there could be no other way to live. 

 

Disrespecting people will not save the world. Forcing people to conform to an imaginary ideal will not do it. Blowing them up will not do it. Accepting things as they are will not do it.

 

But it can be done. And it will have to be done by us.