Sometimes you feel inadequate to the cause. You listen to conversations about drones that fire missiles without humans at the controls. About submarines that aim at targets 50 miles away. You’re out of your league. There’s so much you don’t know about these things that continue to be developed and deployed. You mention perhaps humans should have an ethic that you do not kill anyone you can’t see, that bombing land or maiming people shouldn’t be as easy as manipulating the controls of a Nintendo game from a living room. It's not just about the superior capabilitiy of the weapon, but whether it's right to use such a weapon and never see the consequences of your action.

There’s a pause, and the conversation politely shifts. You’re written off once more as hopelessly naïve. This is war.

It's not a comfortable situation, but it's healthy. And maybe you're not written off completely.

I was reading a National Geographic article on swarm theory. How flocks of starlings, swarms of bees, schools of fish, colonies of ants operate. The direction they take, the home they choose is often dependent on the signals or communication of one bee or ant, and which one influences more of the crowd.

Bees, given five popular options, are pretty good at collectively deciding which site will make an optimal hive based on the ‘buzz’ among them.

The direction of a flock of starlings can pivot around one individual who happens to encounter the hawk first, or see a source of water first.

A single human may warn a community before a tornado strikes. A single human can dishonestly inflame a lynching mob.

No single bee knows for certain the hive location it has found is the best choice. They just each report their data, presumably truthfully.

Maybe just being you, your clear and honest self, is enough.

In some situations, where you happen to be in the right place at the right time, it could be pivotal.