Th surest way for 'evil' to triumph, is for 'good' to do nothing

This is a quote that originally was Burke’s, and has undergone many transformations.  The original just for the sake of it is: ‘When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.’

As I am lying in bed recovering from H1N1 - I can walk today - yahoo!, contemplating whether or not I can actually make a difference for people that have been traumatized.  I contacted Bessel Van der Kolk today, (a pioneer in CPTSD (complex PTSD), the kind that comes from prolonged trauma as a child, as he has often spoken to our need as humans to ignore the atrocities we commit on our fellow man), asking him what his opinion was about being able to help with this problem is.

Further contemplated the "no one really gives a shit" philosophy (belonging to a friend), and find that in many ways it is disturbingly true.  Most people probably don't give a shit about anything other than their lives.  There are a but handful of people and we can name most of them, who gave a shit and changed the world because of it.  And I suspect that the 33% of girls that are sexually abused, and 17% who undergo incest may just give a shit that there is a way to heal.  That if I am looking at that in numbers 2,958,000 Canadian women who suffered incest, 29,580.000 US women have suffered incest (double that for sexual abuse), that is a lot of people who probably give a shit.  Then add in any friends, and people that love the victim, they probably give a shit too.   So if I can make a difference only for this population, then it is significant.

I decided to read Nelson Mandela's autobiography today. A couple of years ago I read on Helen Keller.  All of her noble aspirations came from the books she read.  The bible and some Victorian books, I can't remember the name, but she created a make believe personality based on heroines, of books where good always triumphed over evil.  She was a made up character, and she lived life according to these stories.  At first I was highly disappointed Helen, but as Claudio says about a friend of ours who always sends me text messages telling me how much she loves me when she is drinking,- at least she is a nice when she is drunk, so many people get mean.  So between good and evil, Helen chose to fashion herself after good, which is pretty impressive given her lot in life...

I was listening to a business meeting (from Tristan's company today), and heard the Lions from Lion's Lair (Canada version of Dragon's Den) say "unless you have that absolute passion, know what is it that you want to solve, at some point you'll say there's easier things to do."  Helping people, solving problems is not easy.  In fact as recently as 1972, Freedman et al’s, (1972)  Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry stated that incest was beneficial, was seen to decrease the chance of psychosis in the victim, allowing the daughter to adjust to the external world more effectively and was believed to have little deleterious effect (cited in Van der Kolk, 2008).  Today many people believe differently.  Today studies show the effects of incest are: depression, depersonalization, self-hatred, dissociation, problems with intimacy, aggressive behaviour to self and others, inability to enjoy life ( Van der Kolk, 2008).

So  my options are to take up the gauntlet or not.  What I understand is that there are consequences either way.  My life is happy.  Do I just stop there.  Will it make a difference?    Did Ghandi know that it would make a difference?  Would Nelson have continued had he not known that he would make a difference?