How to do Change?
I was at a meeting of De Publieke Zaak last saturday, which left me with some fairly ambiguous feelings. De Publieke Zaak is a platform in which active citizens work together on ideas to improve the functioning of our government and society in general. I'm all for changing the dominance based power structure, blatantly inspired by the industrial paradigm, that charactirizes all institutions in my society. From schools to political parties. The system must change, or perish, is my belief still. But how to change such a system?
I went through some profound changes in how to answer this question. When I was young, I really believed in activism, change that is forced upon a system from outside. The ANC in South-Africa, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, and similar activist organisation were inspirations to me as a teen-ager. The idea was that you stay independent, so you can criticize the system from a position of independence. Later, when I was teaching in Hungary, being confronted with a very rigid, bureacratic, corrupt administrative system inside higher education, I realized that there is another avenue, and perhaps a more effective one. Being inside a system that I thought needed profound change, I at least had a chance to make an impact. To install new ideas and attitudes that would katalyse the changes I sought. I was aware of this different strategy, and discussed this often with like-minded friends. We agreed that there was something moral, and courageous, in joining the system, and tolerate its inhumanity, in order to create change from the inside.
I lost that fight. Mainly due to my reckless disregard of the political sensitivities inside the faculty. I learned that my uncompromising character had the effect of the proverbial elephant in the porcelain shop. I left the academy, and joined the corporate world. There I discovered that systems and relations are equally dominated by politics and power, and, believe me, I learned the hard way. I don't belong inside a large organization, so I joined a small internet start-up that we turned into a success within a year. There I learned something profound: business can be an arena for creation. This experience, and a number of others, has led me to understand that there is a third path to choose in answering the question of How to Change a System.
You can fight for change as an outsider, you can join the system and create change from within. You can also do something else. You can ignore the existing system, and all its undesirable characteristics, and create something else. In fact, this has proven to be the most effective answer for me. It is also the most difficult path, and that is probably why I took it. The part of me that is an educator decided to start a school, and now it exists: www.guuskieftschool.nl. The same realization, and the necessity of generating income for my family, also drove me to become an entrepreneur, and the result is Crossing Signals: www.xignals.com.
In addition to these creative efforts, I was able to participate in the ultimate act of creation, resulting in the birth of our son Timur. Now I'm really on the spot as an educator, because a parent has a huge responsibility with regard to the values, attitudes, behavior and degree of happiness that a child internalizes. I have been part in creating a new human being. This changes everything. Timur is also a system, with internal controls which are very much in development. He therefore depends greatly on influence from the outside (affection, respect, nourishment, nurturing, discipline, understanding, support etcetera). He is changing on the inside, based on his own internal values. He is being influenced and changed by me, his mother, the other kids in the creche. I myself am changing, and deliberately so, I wish to be a good father and a good human being, and there is some room for improvement there. Thinking about it in this way changes my perspective on the question of How to Change a System yet again. Inside change, outside change, new creation. These are all forces at play in the same field, interacting, clashing, sometimes enhancing each other, always moving. In the end it is a question that has no simple answer, which is true for most questions.
I went through some profound changes in how to answer this question. When I was young, I really believed in activism, change that is forced upon a system from outside. The ANC in South-Africa, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, and similar activist organisation were inspirations to me as a teen-ager. The idea was that you stay independent, so you can criticize the system from a position of independence. Later, when I was teaching in Hungary, being confronted with a very rigid, bureacratic, corrupt administrative system inside higher education, I realized that there is another avenue, and perhaps a more effective one. Being inside a system that I thought needed profound change, I at least had a chance to make an impact. To install new ideas and attitudes that would katalyse the changes I sought. I was aware of this different strategy, and discussed this often with like-minded friends. We agreed that there was something moral, and courageous, in joining the system, and tolerate its inhumanity, in order to create change from the inside.
I lost that fight. Mainly due to my reckless disregard of the political sensitivities inside the faculty. I learned that my uncompromising character had the effect of the proverbial elephant in the porcelain shop. I left the academy, and joined the corporate world. There I discovered that systems and relations are equally dominated by politics and power, and, believe me, I learned the hard way. I don't belong inside a large organization, so I joined a small internet start-up that we turned into a success within a year. There I learned something profound: business can be an arena for creation. This experience, and a number of others, has led me to understand that there is a third path to choose in answering the question of How to Change a System.
You can fight for change as an outsider, you can join the system and create change from within. You can also do something else. You can ignore the existing system, and all its undesirable characteristics, and create something else. In fact, this has proven to be the most effective answer for me. It is also the most difficult path, and that is probably why I took it. The part of me that is an educator decided to start a school, and now it exists: www.guuskieftschool.nl. The same realization, and the necessity of generating income for my family, also drove me to become an entrepreneur, and the result is Crossing Signals: www.xignals.com.
In addition to these creative efforts, I was able to participate in the ultimate act of creation, resulting in the birth of our son Timur. Now I'm really on the spot as an educator, because a parent has a huge responsibility with regard to the values, attitudes, behavior and degree of happiness that a child internalizes. I have been part in creating a new human being. This changes everything. Timur is also a system, with internal controls which are very much in development. He therefore depends greatly on influence from the outside (affection, respect, nourishment, nurturing, discipline, understanding, support etcetera). He is changing on the inside, based on his own internal values. He is being influenced and changed by me, his mother, the other kids in the creche. I myself am changing, and deliberately so, I wish to be a good father and a good human being, and there is some room for improvement there. Thinking about it in this way changes my perspective on the question of How to Change a System yet again. Inside change, outside change, new creation. These are all forces at play in the same field, interacting, clashing, sometimes enhancing each other, always moving. In the end it is a question that has no simple answer, which is true for most questions.
posted by Mathijs at 5:32 AM
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