Is one person just one person, or a huge difference?

This reminds me of the quote: It only takes one person to change the world...

*play angelic music*

Cut, cut, cut!!

No. It doesn't take just one person to change the world. I get what the quote is about, but to be honest, it doesn't. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. One person may be the one to *start* something that can *help* change the world, meaning one person may start the change, but they still can't change the *world* (by themselves).

Example time!

If one person starts recycling but everyone else doesn't, that isn't going to change the world. Not really. However, if *lots* of people--meaning *more* than one--begin recycling, we'll see a difference! Yay! Therefore, it does *not* take *one* person to change the world. It takes *many* people to change the world. After all, the world belongs to more than one person.

Okay, okay. I may be wrong. I'm just a cynic/pessimist/scoffer, which is why I see it this way. Frankly, I've always thought the quote was stupid. Yeah, I think it's dumb. It might motivate some people, but it's always annoyed me.

Anyway, in the first two examples you used, they're just one person. Nothing *huge* is going to happen with just one person becoming a vegetarian. Then again, because I enjoy playing devil's advocate with myself, maybe if it's someone influential, someone with *many* fans, they could change the world. But then again, you could just say that it isn't *only* that one person who's changed the world.

Anyway again, in the last example, it's really up to the individual and how they feel about themselves. If someone's opinion about you doesn't matter to you, then they're just one person. But if you're someone who loves being loved, rather than being indifferent to all the attention, then they won't just be one person.

As usual, I'm crossing my fingers and hoping I make some sense.

Short answer: It takes more than one person to make a huge difference, so therefore, one person can't make a huge difference. Yeah, that's my point.

Wow. It's attack of the asterisks.

**More to add:

If you look at history, there are many people who stood up and tried to change things for the "better" in their time. (It's in quotations because the definition of "better" is different for everyone.) But if no one else stood up with them, then they were in lots of trouble. (Off with your head!) Also, think of revolutions. There isn't just one person in a revolution; there's always more than one person. They all deserve the credit for whatever change they caused, don't they?

And one last example would have to be the commercial I keep seeing on Disney about conservation, recycling, and reusing materials to save the Earth. (Gah! I hate that commercial.) You have all of these Disney stars urging kids to conserve water, telling them what a difference they can make. If it only took one person to make such a huge change, why does there have to be a commercial, huh?

Yeah, now I think I'm done...maybe.

**Haha, Leigh, that's also something I talked about briefly, which is why I'm not so sure I'm making sense. I think you could look at it both ways, but I like the way you worded it, how more than one person played a part.

I like this question! It's kind of like asking whether the glass is half full or half empty...

Felix: Haha...that made me laugh. Now that I look at it, it does look like a hangman game! Yes, the missing letter is S. :D I guess what I was going for didn't work. Oh well.

I was going for the whole Greek feel. Discuses remind me of Ancient Greece, because that's when I first learned about them, and I thought the thing in my picture looks kind of like a discus. And it's golden, so voila! I guess I'm the only one who thinks of Ancient Greece when I hear "discus," though, haha.

But you did give me an idea for a name in the future, so thanks! :D

Yes, one person can make a difference.

Well, actually I believe it sort of a Yes/No.

Example: Only one person recycles in the entire world. No one else does. The world does not change. That one person did nothing.

BUT that situation isn't very realistic. At least, not when it comes to recycling. If one person is doing a good thing, and knows it's a good thing that could help change the world for the better, then that one person is most likely going to tell other people, or at least one more person. Pretty soon everyone is in on it. Now who changed the world? That one person, or everyone working together? I would say, that the actual change was made by everyone together. But we can't forget that without that one person, this group wouldn't have formed. So, yes and no.

Now if someone was convinced that wearing a guitar as a hat was a good cause, would he or she tell everyone, or more importantly convince everyone to do it too? Probably not. But if he or she did, and everyone, everyone, in the streets was wearing guitars as hats, then I would say that this one person did make the change.

So I guess it depends on what kind of change, revolution, or difference you're talking about. If it's something important and huge like global working, a project or achievement, it'll probably only work out if everyone comes together, meaning not one person, but everyone made the difference.

But if we're talking about a fashion, then yes, one person started it. One person made the difference.

EDIT: lol, Kelly, I don't know about you, but I'm going out to buy my guitar-hat as soon as possible! :P

Are you having a bad day, Kelly? You seem rather cynical this morning (it's morning in Australia.).

Okay, so a single man can make a HUGE difference on the world. So man feats and failures have been the result of lone men.

Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill even sadist Hitler have changed to world.

Stupid Helmuth von Moltke may have stopped the course of WW1, if he'd been clever enough to follow the Schlieffen Plan; but no. He doesn't follow it, and the result was WW1.

There's Jesus, who (who even if he lived or not. I don't know) has made billions of people his followers. People dedicate their lives to Jesus and his history.

I'm not Christian in any form, but if Jesus was real, he did a good job of making people believe.

If it wasn't for Bismarck, there would probably be no Germany. He was a good man and an excellent politician, who disregarded the wants of his king and just went for gold.

Winston Churchill. One of the greatest men who possibly lived. He was a lone man, who made a HUGE difference.

Same for Martin Luther King.

So, Kelly, one person *can* make all the difference. But if they're stupid and ignorant; then it best to ignore them.

Millions of people listening to bloody fascist Hitler, and look at how that turned out.

And if someone dislikes you; they're stupid. You're awesome :D

I've kind of just realised that my history rant is really quite pointless :p

Damn you for these philosophical questions Kelly!

You know my mind doesn't expand beyond the width of a pencil!

But anyhow, I will answer your question because it's a foe. And I always defeat my foes.

This is actually a difficult question.

Well, I believe that in minor matters just one person is a huge difference. In their family, in their friendship group, in their school, in their class. They can make all the difference, they have the ability to change things - but easily.

However, in universal things I don't think one person can make a difference. They're not important to the universe. We, people, are important to the Earth as whole, or in large groups - countries, continents - but not just by ourselves. We have to be apart of something else to make a difference. We don't matter otherwise.

But maybe that's ridiculous. I mean look at some of the people that changed the world - Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, etc, - you don't say Nelson Mandela & [Insert name/group here] changed Africa. You just say Nelson Madela. Full stop.

But I think in most cases, if you're a large percentage - such as in a family on 5 you are 20% - you can make a difference. But if you percentage is miniscule - like out of everyone in the world which would be like 0.000000000000000000000000000000001% or whatever, you don't have much of a chance doing it on your own. You have to be in a group, and make that percentage higher.

Don't know if my answer makes sense to anyone but me however.

EDIT: I have a completely unrelated question for Goldfish. Is your name a hangman game? If it is, I say S.

EDIT 2: @Goldfish: What were you going for then? Maybe I looked at it wrongly.

No, one person does not make a huge difference. If there lived only one person on the entire earth, he would never get anything done. I doubt he'd even know most of the earth existed. Scientists, philosophers, world leaders -- all of them have built off of other people's ideas at some point or another. One person cannot make a difference by himself.

HOWEVER (and as you can see by my use of capital letters this is a very big however), one person can get the ball of change rolling, and that's really all it takes.

I think of it like the Pay It Forward idea. If one person shares an idea with three people, and they each in turn share it with three more people, and so on and so on, the idea will spread like wildfire. And it all started with that one person. I think that's how lots of ideas spread.

Billet made an excellent point. Christianity started with one person: Jesus. Then the twelve disciples. Then Rome. Now it's all over the world. Sure, it took two centuries, but it shows that big differences can start out with one person.

This question is a bit too loaded for me to be answering while I'm half-asleep, but who knows? Maybe I'll have some kind of breakthrough sleep-typing epiphany.

I think there are times when one person can truly make a difference and there are times where it's futile. One guy trying to convince people they should shoot up a kindergarten isn't going to get very far. He's just going to end up in jail.

I like your "going green" example though. Because, at least with that specific situation, I really do think that one person can make a difference. Imagine if I started recycling cans, paper, plastic, etc...That's one less person to worry about. Of course, right of the bat I may not have an effect on anyone. But let's say I tell three of my friends, explaining why just a little bit of extra thought could help the planet. Then they start to recycle. Say each one of them tells three friends. Now you've got thirteen people recycling. Eventually, it spreads. Good things tend to do that. And it's easier to motivate people to do good things.

Everything depends on circumstance. For you last situation, it would ALL depend on who this person is. Let's say your a super-geek and this guy/gal is the quarterback/head cheerleader (totally stereotyping here...I'm to sleepy to come be creative) hates you. They have the potential to make your life a living hell. Or if this person who hates you is your crush or something. Then of course that person's opinion will matter so much more. But let's say that the person who dislikes you doesn't mean anything to you personally and you've got a good group of friends. Then their opinion will matter very little.

I think that's what I meant to say. I feel like I'm rambling a little bit (I probably am..). But my point is that it's all circumstance. I'd like to believe that, even in the world today, one person can make a difference.

Edit: ** I love the answer before me. It's great. But I have to disagree. Yes, it takes many people to do it, but if it wasn't for that one person, there would've been no change at all. You can't change the world if you don't change people. And to change people, you need to convince them that what you're doing is the right thing. That all comes from one person. It's just that many people played a part. **

And Kelly (Whoa that was weird. My sister's name is Kelly and calling you Kelly freaked me out because I just now realized this...) you seem like you need a hug. *Quick little cyber-hug for you* :)

Great thought-provoking questions!

And great answers, too. In particular, I really agreed with much of what the Goldfish person & the person directly below them stated, which is great because they saved me the work in expressing a lot of how I was feeling!

To sum it up: my knee-jerk reaction was to answer "no, one person can't make a significant difference." But that is really over-simplifying things, as other responders have essentially pointed out.

One person does comes to mind when I think of a single person who has created positive change for our country--Ralph Nader. He's someone who didn't cultivate crusades but instead single-handedly took on the automobile industry by persuading them to install seat belts and airbags in vehicles. He created the EPA, otherwise known as the Environmental Protection Agency (he's the founding father of being "green"--something that was mainstream in the '70s, somehow got lost in the '80s & '90s and then resurfaced today). He also created OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). There is a long list of other causes he has devoted his entire life for--some of them well known, others not so well known, which I won't list because it would be exhaustive. Yes, he does have *supporters*, I guess in spirit, but he receives NO corporate money--the man cannot be bought.

There are other people whom have *inspired* change, which really couldn't have been done without it being a collaborative effort; however, these single individuals are the brain trusts behind certain movements.

So my answer: yes, one person can make all the difference for all of the questions you've provided. But making a *significant* difference means that the single individual has to put his ideas in motion by involving other people (power in numbers). If the single individual has a life-altering idea but keeps it to himself, the whole notion remains static and has no effect . But every policy / movement / cause that is successful is born by that single person's imagination.

In terms of the question of "if everybody generally likes you but there is that one person...." Well, a previous responder already answered that one spot-on for me.

BTW: I like the way you think--shoot us another one!

I don't think one person is even going to make a dent.

But that one person could inspire a lot of people to do the same. And that, could probably create a dent.

i think vegetarians are pointless because ppl are still going to eat animals

but alot of ppl recycle its not a waste of time