Somebody Should Do Something

Most of the problems that matter most to us, such as climate change, racism and poverty, are structural. They grow out of our shared practices: laws, economies, history, culture, norms and the places we build. That leaves a dilemma. Structures cannot change unless individual people start making different decisions, ones that face the structure rather than just the self. Michael Brownstein, Alex Madva and Daniel Kelly take up this puzzle in Somebody Should Do Something, asking how our personal choices can connect to structural change, and why they matter, though not in the way people usually assume. The authors argue that the personal choices with the most power are the ones that launch us into working alongside other people. One example they offer is warehouse worker Chris Smalls and his organizing of a union at Amazon. Drawing on writer Bill McKibben, they suggest that one important thing an individual can do is to be somewhat less of an individual. The book has three parts. The first takes apart "either/or" thinking about change, the false choice between living better personally and changing the system. The second sets out another way of seeing how change happens, built on a new picture of human nature that is emerging across the social sciences. The third looks at how to put that picture into practice. This is neither a how-to manual nor an activist's handbook. It pairs stories with science, and adds a few jokes, to help readers see their own power and to move from resignation about climate change and racial injustice toward action that can transform the world.