The Consequences of Our Actions

The Consequences of Our Actions What if I told you that everyone in the world is connected? Or if the actions of a man in Iowa could affect the life of a woman living in California? According to Martin Luther King, Jr., “ We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” In other words, a single action of one person has the power to affect hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people. Different authors such as Malcolm Gladwell and historical events such as presidential elections have striven to show us the evidence behind this truth. First of all, this idea that a simple action of one person can influence several geographically separated people similarly could appear quite extreme. After all, even since the last president was elected, arguably the most powerful man in the world, most people would say that their everyday life had hardly changed. But say for example a war, like the one in Iraq, could have been avoided if a different man had been elected. Would it be absurd to suggest that one man ultimately determined the candidate who won the presidency? Absolutely not; a study in The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell, reveals how a simple gesture of one news anchor can influence millions of voters across the country. In the study, four top news anchors from the major television networks (NBC, ABC, FOX, and CBS) were carefully examined as they covered