Vanderbilt and Micro initiatives

I stopped at Vanderbilt University yesterday. Well my blog post did, at least. I stopped by in person, on Labor Day weekend when the University was in full session (they do not have a Labor Day holiday). An interesting campus with a definite Southern touch to it (my idea of the South drawn from books and films from the pre-Civil War era), Vanderbilt has the feel of an elite campus to it. Well, I go to UIC, so that should explain it :) But there's more than money to the place.

There are, for example, poverty alleviation programs that the School of Education (Peabody) and the Business School collaborate on. Real programs, that transcend plans on paper and take groups of students to far from posh places in Bangladesh. Classes that focus on innovation in technology and other fields, using varied and in many cases, minimal resources. Opportunities that challenge individuals from one of the world's most priviledged and powerful countries to think and act for the world's poorest. Without disrespecting them.

Two things got me thinking (again) of the power of small. The opportunity to sit through one such class, and a song that a friend sent me about the need to act to save my home state of Assam in India. The song talked about the power of revolution and movements and was very moving. But it led me to question the power of mass movements. Even as I study the decline of the mass in the field of communications, juxtaposed against the growing power of the individual to form world changing communities, I try to think of effectiveness. It's an (absolute) fact that mass movements have changed the world in various ways. So, I do not doubt the effect that they have had. But when I look back at the past decade or so (and I have to admit, my history is nothing to really write home about), I cannot think of one major mass movement that has made the world sit up and take note.

Has something changed? Is it that the small is more in line with our lifestyles now? Is it easier to create and act one small step at a time and collaborate on the basis of those steps than come together in masses and rally for a cause? I certainly don't know if this is true everywhere in the world, but I can see it in myself. In my friends and among the people I know. Is it because we are similar, people with desk jobs or atleast desk orientations, with most of our time spent chained there? People with a desire to make a difference but without going too far out of the way? Even though it does conflict with the traditional ideal of sacrifice being at the heart of doing good, is this an easier and therefore more feasible route for us to adopt? And then, the larger question that I ask myself everyday. If indeed good can only be done selfishly, will we really accomplish anything significant? My studies lead me to believe that maybe we will. Maybe the collective spirit does not die even if fed by selfish fires. And maybe, Ayn Rand was right.

Tomorrow: increase livelihoods and turn the poor into a growth engine. Apologies for sounding politically apalling.