If I want to make a contribution to society, what profession should I pursue?

There are soooo many ways to make a long lasting contribution to society. I’ll note a few:

1. Medicine. Doctors, nurses, radiologists, anesthesiologists, and others involved in giving medical care to people make a long-lasting often life-saving contribution.
2. First Responders. Fire Fighters, Police, Rescue Squads all provide an important public service that again can save lives.
3. Teaching. People who strive to shape young minds and hearts with tolerance and courage make a major, oft-overlooked contribution to society. That said, educators who simply try to brain wash people and push them into compliance with their own narrow views are doing a great DISSERVICE to the world.
4. Science. People who research the world’s phenomena whether in physics, cosmology, chemistry, medicine, climate, mathematics, and energy contribute insights that expand our pool of knowledge (whether the populace accepts these insights or not is another issue) make profound contributions to society.
5. Net contributing, sustainable businesses. Many business people strive to “make as much money as they can.” This is a formula for discord, upheaval, the formulation of unions, and abuse of society. Businesses that are willing to accept a lower level of profits AND take responsibility for their waste/trash/effluents and products’ life cycles while providing jobs with living wages are net contributors to society. Many businesses are net extractors from society in that they pollute, abuse employees, and take no responsibility for the downstream impact of their products. Being a net-contributing, sustainable business person has a huge impact on society—as does the opposite in a negative way.
6. Politicians. … have a big impact on society for better or worse. Corrupt politicians who accept bribes and kick backs, who put party above country, who put self above country are a huge drain on society—and in many countries, keep their societies from moving forward. Politicians who strive to serve their people, remain free of criminal influence, and operate transparently are much rarer—and much better.
7. Engineering. People who apply science to the world—civil engineers, mechanical engineers, production engineers, and others build roads, bridges, buildings, ships, trains, cars, and much much more. Again, doing that in sustainable ways is a net contributing way to benefit society. Building things that destroy the world around us is the opposite.
8. Religions. In my view, religions and religious leaders have long-lasting NEGATIVE impact on society. They perpetuate ideas and concepts that science has long-since debunked. They operate on feelings as if they were evidence and data—yet zealots around the world believe equally as fervently in their particular religion. People say that religions provide peace of mind to those looking. Clearly. My concern is that any comfort gained on a falsehood is really no comfort at all—merely a deception, a false sense of comfort and peace. Further, religions tend to resist, oppose, and suppress scientific evidence. This has gone on for millennia. If you want to have an impact, becoming a clergy will do that—L. Ron Hubbard once noted that the real money is in religion, but to me, it’s a bad impact.
9. Military. Armies have had a huge impact on society over the millennia. Thing is many of these armies have been armies of conquering. Armies that protect and preserve domestic freedom to vote and speak and very different from armies that conquer. The challenge if you enter the military, you will be obeying the orders of others—who may be good or evil. That’s a dilemma. We revere our military heroes who fought and died to preserve freedom, individual liberties, and protect(ed) us from oppressors. Alexander and Kublai Khan and Cortez and others have had a huge impact on societies. How do you rate them? In the Book of Conquerors in my A Song of Humanity, I explore conquerors from all over the world (not just one region as in other scriptures). Most of them were not kind to the people they conquered.

I’m sure I’ve overlooked some other noble professions that have a positive impact on society and into which one might go with a sense of doing something meaningful and helpful. I hope you find your purpose in life and will be able to follow it with a sense of contribution rather than extraction, and a sense of building on reality.