Let me preface it with an observation with the hope of diffusing argument, allowing reflecting instead  

I have spent many minutes, hours, days, weeks, years, in the clutches of those who dictate our thoughts and actions. I experienced temporal satisfaction at times when it appeared I was in the majority, or more aptly put, I was member with the largest herd of sheep..... Somehow I guess I found security and justification (in my thoughts and actions) for staking a claim with the majority....
I felt I deserved the right to "enlighten" the minority (ignorant). Heck, it was my duty....
If in fact I only "really" did it to feel better about myself, self justification, that was mere icing on the cake and readily dismissed for the higher calling of enlightening the ill informed (lost), or so I thought.....
I pondered why my high of superiority was fleeting, never lasting, but always requiring the energy of another fight (argument) to sustain it. Why did it leave me exhausted and at odds with the world.....why was peace (of mind) escaping me?

I have since found my answers.....  

My question to you, if you care to answer (or even think about to yourself). Upon your death, will the world/society have truly benefited by your life, did you leave a mark of  hope, or grab what you thought you wanted?

We're all just dust in the wind....
If you think you're anything  more,... yer' jus' blowin' smoke...

All the angst and passion over these issues are wasted energy...
Vote... then yer' done... that's all you'll ever do beyond your physical existence...
Beyond that, just be a good person, help your fellow man...

Nothing,... absolutely nothing said or done in this forum will do anything but waft hot air...

... and I'm at peace with that... ...

Bot you're too passive. I want to leave this world trying to make things better for my next 2 generations. Maybe that's it , you don't have a family, that makes a big difference. I debate here only if its to let you guys know the truth about how I feel. I be as nice to everyone as I can. I call and fax my congressmen. I've even written Obama and got a reply, I'm sure it was from one of his aides I think its selfish to set back and do nothing, leaving the next generation in one hell of a mess. Dust in the Wind, hell of a song. Read whats at the bottom of all my post. I believe it.

" IF YOU DON'T STAND FOR SOMETHING, YOU'LL FALL FOR ANYTHING"

                      attributed to Alexander Hamilton and/or Malcom X

Unlikely pair, but it's still true IMO. Sometimes what you stand for isn't even as important as honestly and courageously standing for it. And we are only"dust in the wind" once we are dead. Till then life is about making choices and accepting the consequences of those choices, whatever they happen to be. Sitting on the fence because what we do may not matter to the universe at large is just wasting the short time we have alloted to us.

When I was a young boy I read an SF story about time travel, where tourists are lead back to pre-human earth. They are restricted to specific pathways and are instructed to never never leave it or touch anything. Someone sees a butterfly and captures it to take home. When they get back to the present the whole world is changed, because of the removal of that butterfly. That got me to thinking that every action we take has an effect on the future, and we have no way of knowing what that effect will be.
So I have tried to keep my footprint as small as is practicably possible, and to teach others (my kids, my grandkids, and my students) to do the same.

Midnightrider wrote on 09/14/13 at 11:00:49:
Excellent answer. I feel the same. Having discovered that what I was taught in public school about the way the government is supposed to be is not actually the way the current government functions. I feel a need to inform others as to what I have discovered. If I am conscious just before I die, at least I will know that I gave it my best.

We're all just dust in the wind....
If you think you're anything  more,... yer' jus' blowin' smoke...

darn, that's sad.

"On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero."

another rule from Fight Club?... ha ha

I would amend that to say "on a long enough time line, the survival rate for our human bodies drop to zero"

I refuse to believe the consciousness I feel is simply the result of a series of bio-chemical electrical reactions inside a skull that evolved from a monkey. We are created beings, separate and above all other life forms existing in this dimension, on this planet.