What you do is important

I promised to tell you why it is important that you save energy.

One person can rarely change the world. Most of us are not Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela or even George W. Bush. Most of us are just trying to get by. We go to our jobs, we raise our kids, someone else makes more money than we do. We have no great insight into the market nor into the the workings of politics and no say in either.

But each one of us has been told that we are unique. That there is no one else like us.

Phooey.

The people telling us this in marketing are just selling us. They know we are all the same.

Think about it. We all watch the same TV shows. We were all raised in the suburbs. We all went to the same schools, has the same adolescent angst, smoked the same pot in college. OK, maybe not all of us went to college and some of us never watched TV as kids. But there are enough of us that I can say all.

I have never been in marketing, but I have been around it. There are descriptions of demographics down to the zip code and probably neighborhood that describe you. People in my zip code have 2 cars , like jazz and have at least a bachelors degree. I like classical more than jazz. Though there are times when Miles, Thelonius and Coltrane are just right. But mostly, we have the same beliefs and the same likes and dislikes.

Have you ever stopped at a restaurant that was empty and by the time you leave it is full? Like everyone is following you. (Or you are just hungry earlier) That is what is so important to the idea of demographics.

If you save energy, the other thousands like you will save energy too. If you do not, neither will they. I am not trying to be mystical, nor am I calling us all lemmings, but since we have so many things in common with our neighbors we often come to the same realizations at the same time. Come to the realization earlier and so will everyone else.

I do not know if I am explaining this well enough, so I am going to try again: Imagine a class of students all learning to use the computer language Java. The instructor gives them an assignment to make a calculator that adds subtracts multiplies and divides. Extra credit is given for additional math functions that are offered. Each student will write a different program, but each successful program will be able to add 2+2.. We are all like those computer programs in that we are each written differently, but the outputs will be the same. Granted, some of the outputs will be 5 and others will be “flower,” and these people will be outside the statistical average.

So save some energy, reduce your carbon footprint, other people will too. Maybe because we are leading. Maybe because we are all thinking alike. Maybe because we are following. As far as the earth and the rest of the human race, why we save energy is less important than that we are actually doing it.

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