Are we destined to live with ever more divisive politics and ever more divided societies, growing inequalities and increasing loneliness, less public regard for truth and ever more determined efforts to ban and demonize the voices with which we disagree? Can we restore the trust and civility of public life and private relationships, or are the only institutions that matter the market and the state, the relentless pursuit of wealth and power? Can we change? My argument is that we can. There is one idea that whenever it has been applied has had the power to change the world. Cultures can shift from “I” to “We.”…..

…….It can be done in the future because it has been done in the past. And it begins with us, each of us as individuals. The moment we turn outward and concern ourselves with the welfare of others no less than with our own, we begin to change the world in the only way we can, one act at a time, one day at a time, one life at a time.….

…..To begin to make a difference, all we need to do is to change ourselves. To act morally. To be concerned with the welfare of others. To be someone people trust. To give. To volunteer. To listen. To smile. To be sensitive, generous, caring. To do any of these things is to make an immediate difference, not only to our own life but to those whose lives we touch. Morality is about us each of us in our own sphere of interaction, taking responsibility. We don’t have to wait for the world to change for our lives to change.

Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times by Jonathan Sacks