Change begins with new ideas

The world has been changed for the better in the past, but it took people with good ideas, coupled by masses of people committing to activism

For all those hundreds of thousands (millions, even) who have attended a screening of The Corporation, or any Michael Moore film, or who have flocked to lectures by Noam Chomsky, or who have only occasionally perused even the lightest of newspapers, it is by now obvious that radical changes in how the world operates are very soon required before cataclysm befalls us.

Yet, few of us seem willing to think about or talk about, much less act upon, the kind of changes that are required. Change of this sort is too big a concept with far too many disparate aspects for any one mind to contemplate. And yet, if we don't contemplate change and we don't take action soon, we are certainly doomed.

It is noteworthy that most of how the world operates now is very new, and that there has already been rapid and profound change that has brought us to this point. Someone had to contemplate these changes and many more people had to commit to action to realize these changes.

It wasn't so long ago that most of the food we eat did not come from revoltingly massive force-feed farms, or from fields laden with toxic chemicals, soaked in nitrogen fertilizer, and stuffed with genetically modified seed. It wasn't that long ago when we didn't consume more energy than what is sustainable. It is only over the last two generations during which it has become accepted that war booty is the only means of distributing remaining resources.

It has also been only that length of time since there was prestige in working for the civil service, since the government was regarded as fount of hope for justice and equality, and since care for the unlucky was regarded without question as good for all.

Look how much has changed, and note how fast it changed. Far from the current state of the world being a source of depression, we can take sustenance from the direct and irrefutable evidence that profound change in quick time is, without a doubt, very possible.

It isn't always the case, either, that normal always gets worse. Jarring loose the status quo and opening the way for change is risky, but needn't end in a worse disaster. Pioneers of the union movement in early last century actively changed profoundly the long-enduring relationship of labour to capital and created a whole different prospect for daily life for the bulk of workers, notwithstanding occasional complaints today. Children are no longer put to work, the work week is shortened to a reasonable five days, there is automatic insurance for workplace accidents, and wages have risen dramatically.

By the same process, the government was not always responsible for out health, education, welfare, and unemployment compensation. These were all the result of changes in how we operate the world, brought about by someone who first contemplated that profound change was required, followed by a critical mass of people committed to actively bringing about the necessary changes. The world has been actively and consciously changed for the better in the past.

We are at one of those moments now where change is obviously required, but what kind is not yet fully contemplated. A valid complaint about the whole anti-globalization movement is that it has failed to put forward an imaginable and practicable alternative worldview.

The first thing we are required to do is to encourage again those contemplate better-or at least fixed-worlds. We, and I include this paper in this criticism, are too quick to tear down those who propose changes. Cynacism and skepticism have their place in the free market of ideas, but they can sometimes bully the weak by virtue of having been around a lot longer, in the way veterans can always take down rookies.

What we know is that the status quo is unsustainable. What we must believe is that there is a better way. And what we must conclude is that ideas about a better way are floating out there somewhere among that cloud of ideas we may be too hastily dismissing.

****