A common stated belief which is self-evidently false.
By existing we change the world
We breathe – we change the physical world
We speak to another – we change the social world
We pray – we change our concious world
To deny these changes collectivity change the world (for better or for worse) requires a mystic concept of homoeostasis1 must be employed to assert that some external force acts to cancel change and preserve the equilibrium of the societies starting point!
It is a very short step from “you can’t change the world” to the view that individual acts based of ethics rather than self-interest are at best pointless.
1) homoeostasis –The ability and tendency of certain systems to maintain a relatively constant internal state in spite of changes in external conditions; this ability is achieved by the presence of feedback mechanisms which can adjust the state of the system to compensate for changes in the state caused by the external environment.