This.
I affirm that saying, not because I think it gains anything from having once been a popular bumper-sticker (plenty of bumper-sticker slogans are inane or too vague to convey meaning) but rather because it indicates
individual action rather than
compelling others.
Of all the large-scale changes that one might impose from the top down, the change from Imperial to Metric seems to be the most obviously-right, the clearest advantage, the total no-brainer. I have no arguments against it, on the merits.
BUT, I admit that compelling an independent dairy-farmer to relabel all his wares in a way that his own
customers aren't currently familiar with comes across to me as...presumptuous. Nosy. Being a busybody. Being a "Karen," as everyone seems these days to be saying. (I know only 3 women named Karen and the meme isn't descriptive of any of them, but whatever.)
And I think in our world, this tendency of Joe Regulator to
stick his oar in, because he just knows
he's got it right, and all the experts are
on his side, and he's
personally convinced how much better life will be if everyone gets on board with
his plan ...I think that tendency is already too common. It isn't just bad for the
regulatees, whenever Joe (oops!) gets things wrong. It's also bad for Joe Regulator, even when he's actually right. For of course the natural instinct of any free-thinking soul is to tell Joe to buzz off and mind his own dam' business. The resulting dynamic undermines Joe's credibility when important things are afoot, for the same reasons as with the "little boy who cried wolf."
Now, "think global act local" doesn't suffer from any of those problems.
If enough people make changes
on their own initiative, and when the opportunity is
ideal for them, it'll still happen. It'll happen
slower, to be sure...but that's an acceptable trade-off for not engendering resentment and disrespect for regulatory authorities, elite contempt for the needs of those subject to regulation, and stresses on small businesses attempting costly compliance with diktats that don't necessarily make sense in their local market.
Like I said: Converting from Imperial to Metric is a no-brainer. If ever there was a case to be made for saying, "Screw the little guy's concerns, let's just get this thing done and move on," it would be
this case.
But, I think, I'm happy to see some governments having the
humility and
self-constraint to let the thing happen more slowly and organically. Since it is always the policy-maker's chief temptation to be
grandiose, I find it easier to trust the folks who
don't go whole-hog, even when the case for doing so seems a slam-dunk.