Where do you draw the line between protesting a system and enabling it?

Where do you draw the line between protesting a system and enabling it?

In the world we live in, it is impossible to survive without somehow enabling "the system" - the systematic oppressions and injustices of the modern world. Even living completely off the grid still "enables" the system, in that it allows the system to continue without active resistance.

Going vegetarian still enables exploitative factory farming of animal products. Going vegan still enables the exploitation of rainforests and other wildernesses from which we get many of our natural resources and consumer products.

Even people who dedicate their lives to fighting for racial and economic justice wear factory-made apparel from exploited, underdeveloped nations and patronize companies with shady business practices.

It is impossible to escape the economy of exploitation into which we were born. That does not mean, however, that we should stop trying to improve things. We are only individuals: we have to pick and choose what battles are worth fighting. One person cannot change everything, but they can dedicate themselves to changing something. On an international level, individuals are statistically insignificant. On a local level, they can be giants. 

Try not to be discouraged by the scope of injustice in the world. Believe it or not, the world is better off today than it was 100 years ago, and 100 years ago savvy reformers felt just as overwhelmed by the world's problems as we do now. We might receive more exposure to negativity nowadays due to the Internet, but it has always existed. And it has always been weak in the face of determined protest by moral reformers.

Focus on Memphis, or on whatever community you currently live in. Look for the injustices occurring in your backyard, and start there. Find peers who share your enthusiasm for social reform. Understand that, while the modern world is inherently exploitative, there are small injustices everywhere that you are capable of fixing.

Arm yourself with knowledge, confidence, and a sense of moral justice, and keep fighting to make the world, in the words of Rhodes College's former student body president, Thomas Mitchell, "better today than it was yesterday, and better tomorrow than it is today."