On the significance of insignificant choices (Issue #9)

Author

Chris Musei-Sequeira
December 30, 2024

A small, light-colored speck sits in the middle of a deep blue background. The speck is planet Earth, as photographed from the space probe Voyager 1 from the edge of the solar system. The speck sits within a translucent blue diagonal line; this line is a beam of light from the Sun. SOURCE: Voyager 1’s Pale Blue Dot - NASA Science. (n.d.). Retrieved December 29, 2024, from https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-1s-pale-blue-dot/

Looking for my aviation noise and emissions newsletter? Subscribe to it here:

Add [email protected] to your address book so you don’t miss newsletter issues from us!

My YouTube viewing history consists mostly of two video genres:

  1. Palestinian genocide

  2. Airplane crash investigations

Wholesome and edifying, huh?

Yet, I see common elements between the two genres. Mainstream media portrays airplane crashes as happening out of nowhere, but the crash investigation genre consistently challenges this portrayal. Investigations make clear that crashes don’t just happen; they result from chains of events. A tiny break in those chains—a different flight control movement, an alternative spoken word, a seated bolt—could have prevented catastrophe. The genocide in Palestine—which has been going on for decades—is built upon anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiments going back even further, with good old-fashioned European colonialism at the root. Genocide, built on long chains of events over hundreds of years.

Maybe this comparison feels like a severe over-stretch. After all, social systems are much more complex than aeronautical systems, with many more actors and much longer time-spans. Changing social systems isn’t rocket science… it’s harder. Plus, genocide is already happening right now.

For much of 2024, I’ve been grappling with the feeling of being insignificant in the face of global disasters. Over the last few weeks, I finally arrived at the realization that I'm not going to change the world. I spent much of my adulthood thinking I was supposed to do something, as an individual, that would initiate mass change. Not anymore. Now I feel—in my belly, in my bowels, and beyond my intellect—the very naïveté of such a thought. Yet, videos about Palestinian genocide and airplane crash investigations have taught me something: my individual actions may be truly insignificant, but that doesn't mean they have no impact. Each tiny action could perturb one little piece of the universe toward a slightly different direction that becomes a massive difference over time.

Wait—Aren’t I contradicting myself? I said I’m not going to change the world; then I said my little actions could add up to a big impact.

Well, there’s a nuance here that makes all the difference.

All aeronautical engineering students learn about “Those Great Men” of the discipline: Kutta and Joukowski, Navier and Stokes, Bernoulli, Prandtl, and so on. Ah yes—surely these individuals Changed the World and society would be worse off if not for their brilliant work… right? Well, I won’t try to revise history. But I will tip my virtual hat to those unknown people who made Those Great Men’s clothing, food, shelter, pens, paper, and so much more. Didn’t their unknown, insignificant actions add up to a big impact?

The more I age, the less I believe in the pseudo-Platonic ideal of the One Great Individual. I no longer hold the notion that the world is stagnant but for the actions of a few significant folks. I don’t aspire to be a von Braun, a Grove, a Moore, a Jobs, a Musk, a Bezos. Sure, I believe that there is a such thing as an autonomous human being…… who makes decisions within a bigger context filled with other people. There is a such thing as society.

That’s the nuance: making an impact not by building a river, but by being a stone in the current. Or a vortex… an eddy, even. A grain of sand.

So why not hold hope in the tiny little changes that I can make with my actions? It’s a kind of conscious, peaceful realism: the idea that whatever I do while I’m alive will be minuscule yet still worth doing. I don’t have to be a One Great Individual to make a difference… and indeed, I may never know the future impacts of my actions. In releasing the burden of needing to be Great, I make room to experience the joy of daily choices.

In 2025, I make room to rejoice in the truth that principles still matter.

Here are my questions for you

  • Do you resonate with the metaphors of making tiny changes in direction or intervening in long chains of events?

  • What are those tiny little changes and interventions that you might make in 2025?

Press the “reply” button in your email app and share with me your answers if you like. I’d love to hear from you.

Happy New Year.

Where to find the sustainability perspectives you’ve been missing

FIRST: Subscribe to the “We Are LaCH” podcast, where friends Heather Luna and Lavinia Muth and I host discussions on power and oppression — particularly in the context of the sustainability industry.

SECOND: Follow on LinkedIn:

THIRD: Forward this issue to people you know in the sustainability industry — they’ll probably say a thing or two in response!

Got something to say to me?

I’m Chris, the Principal of CJSC, LLC, and I’m (un)learning along with all of you — so hit the “reply” button and give me a piece of your mind!

Did someone send you this issue? Subscribe now to receive future newsletters like this.

Know someone who needs to see this issue? Hit the “Forward” button in your email app and send this to them.

My name is Chris Musei-Sequeira, and I use he/him pronouns. My mother was born in Trinidad and Tobago as a descendant of African slaves brought to the islands during the time of European colonization. She came to the United States of America (USA) at the age of 10. My father is Goan and was born in India, in Mumbai, and raised Catholic and English-speaking. He came to the USA for his graduate studies, where he met my mother.

My sister and I were born in the USA and lived a middle-class life in the suburbs of multiple American cities. I studied aeronautical engineering and technology policy in university, then worked at the Federal Aviation Administration and as an aviation consultant. I've lived in cities up and down the USA East Coast since the age of 18; I now reside in Queens, New York with my wife.

I thank Heather Luna and Lavinia Muth for showing me the importance of publicly expressing our positions. Because of our positions, all of us are very familiar with some aspects of the world while having no idea of other aspects. Positionality expresses how our individual positions affect our relationships with other people and with the world as a whole.

Introductory image: Voyager 1’s Pale Blue Dot - NASA Science. (n.d.). Retrieved December 29, 2024, from https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-1s-pale-blue-dot/