If you want the situation to change, best to be that example you want to see -- be that example for others. Then you can be an instrument of Krsna's spiritual potency to make change -- not by manipulating the situation, but by being pure. Without purity, things don't go to the spiritual position. Conversely, when there's spiritual purity, things will go to the spiritual position. That takes faith. One who has faith can bring about changes in one's self, in one's family, in one's community, in the world at large in which we are trying to impact the misguided civilization around us. .

-- Adapted from a lecture given by Srila Romapada Swami in May 2005 in Chicago