> We do not attempt to change minds in order to change the world.
> We attempt to change the world in order to change minds. The latter
> is the ultimate goal, but the former is the means -- in fact the only
> means.
The formula for getting nowhere or -- worse -- for crashing our car: We do not attempt to change our acceleration (i.e. we do not try to step on the gas pedal or on the brakes) in order to change our speed and, thereby, our spatial location. No, we attempt to change our spatial location first in order to change our speed and thereby our acceleration. That's because our spatial location (whether we are in a hole or at the top of a hill) *conditions* our speed and, in turn, our current speed constrains our acceleration (Newton's first law of motion).
Or, to use another metaphor: We do not attempt to change our psychology (e.g. our ongoing thoughts and emotions) in order to change our lifestyle (e.g. diet and exercise habits) and thereby our physiology (e.g. metabolic rates) and, ultimately, our anatomy (e.g. regulate our body weight, etc.). No, we go ass backwards: We attempt to change our body weight first in order to change our physiology so that our lifestyle and our psychology follow suit.
Humans make their history, but not arbitrarily. We are constrained by the conditions that exist at the time. The fact that our anatomy *conditions* our physiology and thereby our lifestyle and psychology doesn't mean that the immediate place to start changing things is by having our anatomy -- as it were -- "pull itself by its bootstraps." How? How do we change our anatomy directly if the variables we control have only an indirect or mediated influence on it? Even if we are to change our anatomy the surgical way, the immediate starting point is a change of mind: deciding that surgery is for us.