Is there any point trying to accomplish good?

Don’t be content in your life just to do no wrong, be prepared every day to try and do some good. ~ Nicholas Winton

In the 2023 film One Life, Johnny Flynn plays Nicholas Winton, an impulsive but principled young stockbroker who unexpectedly finds himself involved in perilous humanitarian efforts.

In 1938, on a visit to Czechoslovakia, Winton is struck by the number of young Jewish children at acute risk from the Nazi threat spreading across Europe.? He decides he will help as many as possible to flee to Britain.

There is a scene where Winton discusses with several colleagues how they can accomplish this task in time before the children are condemned to the concentration camps.

The group run through all the obstacles preventing the children’s relocation: no money, no visas, no transport, no homes. One of the group remarks regretfully “I am an ordinary person”. Winton insists this is no obstacle. He suggests that they form an “army of ordinary people” to commence the rescue operation. Despite his outwards confidence, he does not find it easy to emotionally navigate the situation.

The film explores how in subsequent years the older Winton (played by Anthony Hopkins) remains uncertain of how much good he has done. In fact, he is weighed down by the thought of those he was unable to save.

Many ‘ordinary people’ today feel unsure whether it is worth trying to accomplish good in our communities. ?

Even simply trying to present a balanced and reasonable perspective on social media takes its toll. The noisiest and most exaggerated voices seem to get the most traction even if their sentiments harm rather than help.?

Thankfully, most of us will never have to face the terrible dilemmas faced by people like Winton.

But his attitude offers useful insights for the everyday problems experienced by people of conviction.

Winton’s approach suggests it is generally better not to wait for “the right time” to make a difference. Often, we may need to go ahead anyway with our plans, irrespective of circumstances, and avoid the temptation to think too much about how to precisely measure short-term success. Possibly this process requires a similar confidence to Winton that it is better to attempt a change than to become weighed down by what we cannot control.

We will not always be able to see a positive return on our efforts.

In fact, most of the time we probably will not.

It is impossible to accurately measure the full impact of our words and actions because we do not know how they will influence another person who will in turn influence further people and so on.

Winton himself observed having definite knowledge of the outcome is really the least important part of doing good, and that any such knowledge is really a ‘bonus’.?

When we let go of the need to have certainty, we may be more willing to take more risks.

Eventually, we achieve much more than if we had allowed ourselves to remain preoccupied with a sense of our relative lack of influence compared to others.

There may even be the possibility that we begin to see that being an ‘ordinary person’ in an open democracy is a gift much more than it is a constraint.

Unlike others living in oppressive environments around the world, we do not have to worry about experiencing injury, imprisonment or even death for our efforts to improve our society or simply to have our say.

Soren Kierkegaard famously said "Confidence is the present tense of hope."

Confidence in our contribution to our society, even when it seems slight, is important. This attitude perhaps allows us not just to hope for positive change over time but to remain ready and prepared, as Winton said, for greater opportunities to make a difference.