For the Future
I have a dream that most will endeavor, and (for the price of an effort) can come to live rightly, justly, and well upon this Earth. Human minds, unthoughtful and wallowing in egoic unmindfulness, are terrible things to waste as life (theirs and all others) will otherwise be lamentable. With less garbage in, minds will function righter and weller. There is so much room for improvement that almost any effort will pay off. But again, we cannot change those who cling to changelessness.
We must begin by considering change of, by, and for ourselves, and then to gather into thoughtful and mindful communities of those seeking a common ground (of inquiry-based practices, not beliefs). We must endeavor to create communities of such love and beauty that others will be drawn, tempted to consider adding their lives to them, and thereby considering such change as they may need to make in their personal life. If the community neglects to regard the rolling of leaves into tubes, lighting them, and sucking the smoke into lungs to be healthful or conducive to the good life, then a smoker would have to consider life with one fewer habit, or finding a community of smokers.
But would a community of smokers attract those best able to create a beautifully functional community? If they reject evidence that smoking is harmful, they reject or discount science, and little can be hoped for. The intelligent (and life choices are a measure of it) would give it up, and the community of non-smokers would compassionately help them quit using tested means. We all have sense to see how things work best, so why not make them work that way? Freed from beliefs, people will be more intelligent and creative.
Yet a 'community' of smokers is what most people live in now. The term 'community' may be applied to the area they find themselves living, but it rarely merits the name as little of what sprawls is intentional. There may be 'city planning' but this is merely to make what is already happening a bit more orderly—there is little deep thought involved and few deep choices are made. What we should consider is the possibility that we need to consider all possibilities. At best we will hit what we aim for, so let us be clear about where we need to go, such as towards rational, human-friendly, planned, and sustainable communities that depend on and serve Nature.