I’m not sure that I can provide any better response to this question than all of the above. They are all great answers and the question itself is truly interesting to ponder. I suspect that all genuine thinking people wonder about it at some point or another. (Although, admittedly it probably helps if you have read or travelled a bit. It tends to make you aware of the historical changes that have occurred when individuals gather to create change. Personally, I am from a rather provincial small town in the midwest and wonder whether I would have given any thought to social change and the individual if I had not been afforded the opportunity to move around a little)
This question reminds me of a definition that I heard a college professor once remark when talking about politics. He said that politics is merely “the authoritative allocation of values.” In other words, the power to allocate the values that you as an individual, group, political party, etc believe in.
It is such a a sublime and simple definition, and yet explains so much of what we mean when we talk about creating change or a social movement, doesn’t it?