Ask Lemmy

What makes you think you can't leave a significant positive legacy?

You can get involved with your neighbors. Invest in your local community. Adopt an orphan or volunteer at a women's shelter.

There's a million things you can do to make a significant impact. Every person you invest in is another person who can go and invest in others.

This idea that anything that's below the national or worldwide level isn't significant is a cancer on society.

There are people who lived hundreds of years ago who, sure, you'll probably have never heard of if you don't live in the same area as me, but who have had huge impact on the community. The same is true for where you live. I promise you.

Bring your eyes down, and look to make your legacy local. I promise you it's possible. And I promise you that it's significant.

No. I'm here while I'm here, and I do my best to help people, when I can and am capable anyways.

There's no stopping the clock, everyone has their time..

No. I think too many people obsess about what happens after they're gone rather than living their life to the fullest. One doesn't need to make it into history books to leave an impact on the world around them.

The following is a story I was told as a child that I think puts some if this in perspective:

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, "What are you doing?"

The youth replied, "Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them back, they'll die."

"Son," the man said, "don't you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can't make a difference!"

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said, "I made a difference for that one."

Lol, I'm probably dead in 30 years or less. I'm over half way there because of a major health condition I lost the genetic lottery on. It is what it is. I like to think I've raised a child capable of empathy, that's all I can do.

You know, I may not make a lot of difference in THE world, but I can make a difference in SOMEONE’S world and that’s how I live my life

Nope.

Don't care about legacy either, just hope the people I care about have happy memories if they think about me until they pass away. No need for my memory to pass on to future generations or anything.

I don't care. Our civilization will collapse, the earth will become uninhabitable and the universe will die at some point. So whatever we leave behind ultimately doesn't matter anyway. I try to make life as enjoyable as possible for myself and my GF and try to be a positive influence for my friends, family, colleagues and neighbourhood. When it's over, it's over and I'm not going to worry about what I'm leaving behind. I'm an insignificant speck in the grand scheme of things and I'm just fine with that.

No kids and no legacy to worry about sounds quite good to me actually.

Not really. It's mostly old age I worry about - not dying.

I'm however slightly optimistic that I might be able to reach so called longevity escape velocity during my lifetime due to advances in medical science and life extension therapies.

I don’t care about leaving a legacy. I’m here to enjoy myself as much as possible in this very fucked up world.

Most everyone has an innate urge to live forever somehow. It's an expression of our fear of death. They make children, or inventions, or buildings, or artworks, or whatever "legacy" they can think will persist after their death.

It's natural to feel this way. We're wired for it.

The cruel trick is that nothing lasts forever. We yearn for things we can't have.

I'm more upset about everything that's going to happen in the far future that I won't get to see

I'm kinda sad that I probably* won't get to see how this story ends. Do we make it as a species? Do we end up in the Star Trek utopia, or do we wipe ourselves out with our own hubris? But I'm not sad of afraid of dying itself. My legacy will be doing right by my kids and hopefully setting them up to live better lives than I did, and I'm OK with that.

*If I do live long enough to see us wipe ourselves out that will be pretty shit, ngl.

You don't have to earn a Nobel Piece prize to leave a significant positive legacy. You can plant a tree, help someone or teach a skill to a kid..

No. That's a fact of life, being sad about it doesn't do anything and only harms me. So stop worrying about legacy or level of significance and just try to make the world better any way you can.

Do you feel sad about the fact that you'll probably die within 100 years (or less)

A quote from Richard Dawkins:

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?

Every. Damned. Day.

Just trying to be a good person is pretty tough sometimes. People take advantage. It sucks.

I may have, at one point. Then I realized that the only reason anyone leaves a 'positive legacy' is because they actively sought to paint themselves that way. In other words, they managed to trick you and everyone else into thinking that it was their singular will that manifested all of this positivity.

Positive legacies are not the product of any one person, they are a collective effort, and the collective shares both the credit and the spoils.

You have to keep in mind, what is a positive legacy? Is it simply being remembered? No, because I've surely planted many trees (I drop seeds where I go) — will anyone remember the man who dropped the seeds?

When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.

— God, Futurama

Depends on your definition of "significant positive legacy".

If you're drawn to the fame and notoriety of public figures as a template for this legacy, then I'd say these types of people already put their lives out in public for you to follow as a template. You will likely be seen as a narcissist in some circles.

On the other hand, many games and thinkers instill the rationale that you are the sum of your choices. Your karma - or action logic perhaps - will ripple around you with consequences - intended or not. These choices raise a new legacy of being an example.

A lot of people want to just live their lives in their own peace, make a living, do what they can to support their people. Such folks receive no fame, and no notoriety. They do everything necessary. There's no thanks expected. But they make human life worth it. I'd rather be a part of this example.

Together
Everyone
Accomplishes
More

In many ways, we all entered the same game with the same example of team. We all wake up, work, transit. Everything has to come together in order for us to get back home safely. It has inherent value, and is a "legacy". What I think of as "legacy" is also your heritage and your birthright. You inherited someone's legacy to be possible and to be here.

There are forces that threaten this example. People who want to do violence to it, destroy it, pillage it, profit from it, you have to choose to protect it. They don't want you to see your own worth. They don't want you to see the value in others. They want you to stay small, and deny your heritage. How you protect this example, and the vulnerable, is up to you.

EDIT: I'm just using the terms you and they in a generic sense. I don't literally mean you to single any specific person out. Similarly, I'm not literally talking about "they" like some kind of secret cabal reference. They is an ever changing reference to any kind of opposing force - be it person or system or effect.

I feel sad that I can’t see what my impact will lead to (however small).

I also feel sad that i can’t see how certain new technologies will mature.

It helps me to think about it like this:

The shittier the world's circumstances, the brighter and longer a single good deed will shine.

I will leave a positive legacy, but I'm not concerned when I'm forgotten by time. I've come to terms with the fact that life is for the living, and I'm doing my part to try and make the world a better place for future generations.

Indifferent.

I've been through things that should have killed me.

I'm just happy the ride isn't over yet.

Being stardust that can think about what stardust is, is pretty neat.

... Maybe I'll try to make an apple pie sometime soon...

No , the heat death of the universe will sort it all out in time. Doesnt mean i dont want things to improve during my time here for us and future generations.

I am more enthusiastic about that are already people living now that will see the year 2100.

Yep. Im also terrified of actually dying. I want to die in my sleep so I dont see it coming, but I dont want to miss the experience of death because everyone gets it and you can only really do it once so it really is once in a lifetime experience. Except I wont have any life to remember the experience so it doesnt matter. And since it doesnt matter why do I want it. But what if it hurts?

Looking forward to it actually... Will finally get some peace and quiet...

It's not that hard to leave a significant positive legacy. It only needs to be person-sized. Did you have one pretty good child? Congratulations, you did it! Did you have, like, three good friends? Give yourself a big ol' check.

These aren't easy, but they aren't in general un-do-able.

None of us individually truly leave a lasting legacy. Maybe some get to have their name repeated a little longer than others but that's about it.

Everything that's happened in human history happened because of communities of people ... they might have had a leader but even the leader wouldn't have made any of it happen without large groups of people. And every single one of those people had a small part to play in making it all happen.

We all have a small part to play during our lives and together all our small parts add up to great things.

We really can only do much impact to our immediate area, most significant legacy positive legacy building is creating and propagating movements. If you want to feel like you’re making positive change then do things that help the people around you, the smallest things like shifting to local mom and pop shopping vs big retail for a couple purchases can help keep money local and supports them raising their families there in your town. Same as just picking up litter you might see as you walk through a park, you never know who’s watching and who it might influence to do the same or to stop littering over time. Not everything has to be macro but all the small decisions do add up to a pretty large change around you that will be noticed.

My kids are my legacy. Whether that's positive or negative is up to them at this point.

Regardless of that, I used to be terrified of dying. When I was younger because I hadn't experienced or accomplished anything. Heck, George Lucas planned nine Star Wars film's and I couldn't die before I'd seen them all! (In retrospect, maybe that wasn't as important as it seemed at the time.) Getting older it was because my family wasn't ready.

Now I'm in my fifties and my body is already falling apart. My dad and father in law are in better physical shape than me due to back and joint issues. My kids are pretty close to self-sustaining — as much as they'll ever be.

I'm as immortal as someone without big ambitions can be. I'll never have a statue or exhibit in a museum or book written about me, but I'd be pretty happy with a park bench in a scenic spot. I don't want to be buried, but it would be nice to have that as a place anyone who cares to could go and remember me — not some gaudy marble surrounded by death.

What more could I want other than people who love me and remember me for a time? And between now and the end, I've got things to keep me busy. Computer games and learning woodworking. Travel. Continuing to grow as a person. I'm not done living by any means, but I'm okay with dying. I imagine it'll suck at the time, but all things end. Even the universe.

"Significant" is pretty subjective overall. In the end, there will always be critics to whatever you do. People in the US have been brainwashed into thinking people like GW and Christopher Columbus were good people until people connected the dots and realized they were in fact not. I won't be the one to cure cancer or end war in my lifetime, but the most I can do at this point is to give someone else hope.

Just being a role model for someone or treating someone like a human being is still significant if you think about it. People get attached to the romanticized idea of being hailed a hero for something "significant" that happened, but usually being that kind of stereotype involves a type of sacrifice. This is why comic book heroes usually have tragic back stories. It is not so black and white.

As cheesy as it sounds, our actions really do echo in eternity.

It helps me to think of everyone who was here before me, and be grateful for what i have.

And to see that I am the next in line, to make the world just a little better, than it was when i was born, in the ways that I am able to.

Not really. It's kinda like asking what will we ever do if something happens in outer space that'll mean the end of our earth and all of the combined wealth of rich people can do anything to help it (they'll hoard it all anyways and think they'll see their money afterwards).

Things that have a beginning, have an end, that's life in general. You live it. You do what you can in it, try not to be the most worst individual and whatnot. The sad part of it all is not being able to carry over everything you've learned and those you've known. Then again, it won't matter at all in the next life you'll be in because everyone you've known is long gone into their next journey wherever and whomever.

But as for the positive legacy? Well, the only way we'll ever do that is if we're in positions of power, have all the wealth or born well-known with unmatched charisma. It's just a damn shame we live in a timeline where all of that is horribly misused and abused.

I'm just here to drink, love, and have a good time.

I do yeah. It takes like 1/3 of our lives to mature, 1/3 to do something, and the last 1/3 is to try to match the performance of what we were able to achieve before we wither away.

I thought about this a lot and I’m pretty burnt out at all the horrible shit I’ve seen so I don’t really fear death but like everyone else I obviously don’t want it to be horrible. That being said as an agnostic I think that living a life where you do your best to be a good person is a more powerful legacy than you realize. Billions of people caring about eachother and doing their best makes a huge impact on the future. Sure we have fun learning about those who had impressive monuments built in their name or were leaders in some kind of movement but progress is multilateral and made from a million failures before a success. good or bad history was created by billions of unknowns and that is what really made up history and culture. We really have the power collectively to shape the future not as much with individualism unless you were born into privilege but with working diligently everyday to reinforce your values. Just make your little piece of the world better everyday and it will make a difference over time

I think my kid’s going to have a robot servant and go to a different planet. I’m well jealous.

Not really. It would be cool to leave a mark on the world, but once I'm dead, I won't be around to care.

Trying my best, still, not sad since I won't (be able to) care anyway.

Eh. Marks on the world are hardly ever single instances of action by single people.

Way I see it, if I can end up contributing in whatever small ways to better myself, my neighbors, my country, and the world through whatever small acts I can then I will.

I do what I do for the sake of belief in myself, and those around me, if something comes out of it then all the better, if not then better fail than never have tried.