Activism. Anyone who is keen on speaking up against the "unjust, wrong or unethical things in the world", it is good to take examples of people who have been very skillful in the past, who have spoken up, who have been able to make changes and who have done it without the aversion, which often leads to violence. We are witnessing in this time in history over in Burma right now, there is a women in house detention, all of you know who she is, Aung San Suu Kyi. She is an inspiration, she is not getting anything done yet, but hopefully she will, hopefully she will be another success story like Nelson Mandela. There is almost no greater success story in our relative history than his. What was it? 26 years in jail? He ended up being prime minister of the country, or president or whatever they call it there. He set the whole country free to a whole new way of life that was very, very correcting. Very much correcting something that was unjust, something that was wrong, something that was unethical. So take these two people as examples of how change can come about without aversion and violence.
Now, in a different way, protesting is trying to get things changed. Years and years ago, there was a group in America that was called "Nader's-raiders". The leader of it is still alive, his name is Ralph Nader. Some of what he does is politically not always acceptable by lots of people, but what he did years and years ago was to protest against lots of little things regarding health and security, such as unsafe baby carriages. Seat belts also, I think. He protested about lots of little things, trying to help society. He did it in a quiet way, he did it in a very effective way, he talked to a lot of politicians, he got things done. So, this man also showed this ability to get things done without having aversion, which leads to violence.
It is clear, when you look around the world, the places where people become violent, it doesn't usually help the situation at all; you just have to look at the Middle East. Are we all going to live to an old age, die and the world will still be the mess that it is today? It is probable. Nobody there cares enough to make the world a better place without aversion; both sides are doing it full of aversion. What is happening is unjust, what is happening is wrong, what is happening is unethical, but they are not able to fix it with aversion. And that is true.
So take examples from people who have made positive changes in the world without aversion and without violence. Compare these people to those who have spoken up trying to correct things, but did it with aversion and violence. Comparing these people can give you the strength that if you decide to speak up, to try to do it without the aversion. You get things done much better without it. So really the balance here, is balancing our compassion with wisdom and equanimity. Patience is also required to not expect change to happen quickly. This is also very important when you are trying to change something that is massive, unjust, whatever, absolutely don't expect anything fast. Most people don't want to change quickly. So give it time. You will need a lot of patience with this, to help balance your own compassionate wish for change, and to help prevent the grief and the aversion that may come when things are not changing quickly enough.