How Do We Make Change? Reform or Revolution?
This week, I have been thinking about a very old question, one that has likely been around for all of human history, or at least for as long as some early humans realised they did not like what other early humans were doing…and then resolved to do something about it.
I have no doubt – because the side of change making has always been full of visionary, creative, and also delightfully contrary people – that right at the very start, there was a division of views on how best to make that change.
And it was this: reform or revolution?
Change the system from the inside, or tear it all down and start again?
Talkin’ about a revolution 🌪️
Rocky the Rooster from the brilliant Aardman Animations stop motion animation film, Chicken Run, was a revolutionary. There is no negotiating with Farmer Tweedy, whose income and livelihood depends entirely on exploitation of the flock, and who sees no intrinsic value in non-productive members of the flock once their laying days are over. This is a zero sum game: the Farmer has everything stacked in his favour, and the flock have nothing to bargain with other than their freedom.
So Rocky leads a daring breakout, proving that (*with proper planning and a total disregard for the laws of physics) – chickens can fly.
Fight the enemy, not the system ✊🏽
Revolution makes for great cinema. But it is also risky – because usually, after tearing down structures, new structures need to be built. And those structures are often built in conditions of instability and uncertainty, and sometimes competing interests, values and principles defeat the task of building something better, even when tearing down the old thing was clearly the right thing to do.
In the very worst cases, more people are worse off after a revolution, than they were before it.
Why take all that risk, when you can just shift the balance a little, to make things right?
This is the sort of thing that a reformer would point out.
Mr Fox is a reformer. He’s a fox-shaped Robin Hood, stealing from the wealthy food industrialist farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean and taking personal benefit by taxing a system of exploitation run by others. Unfortunately, the taxes get too steep for the greedy 3 Bs, and they retaliate against not just Mr Fox and his family, but the entire local wild animal community, literally driving them deep underground.
In the end, Mr Fox leads the wild animals to the safety of an urban sewer (*not sure the analogy is holding any more, or maybe it is), and they emerge triumphant into an entire supermarket of food to steal.
So the lesson is: when faced with a system overwhelmingly stacked against you, don’t waste your energy tearing it down; just take your share.
So, who wins?
I think revolutionaries and reformers both have justice and the good of people at their hearts. They are just locked in a difference of opinion around how to achieve those goals.
Injustice hurts people no matter where you find it, and change makers generally want to make things right. But both options are risky, in different ways.
Do we have to choose?
Yes, and no. On an individual basis, these are choices we make every day. We make choices about how we spend our time (in work and at play), about how we share our power (including how we spend our money) and about the relationships we build with others. The rules we choose to follow also matter: if we recycle, if we pay our taxes, if we speak up when we see someone else unjustly harmed.
On a collective basis, I think you can be part of a movement that embraces both. I know that sounds wild, but it’s true. Whether we are seeking change by revolution or evolution, it is not us who decides whether we succeeded but future generations. We are, all of us, just giving it our best shot.
If that’s true, we need visionaries both within and outside the system, working for change today. We don’t have to agree on everything, but a great deal can be accomplished by focusing on the key things we do agree on, and just letting go of the rest.
Because if we don’t manage this thing, if we don’t learn how to challenge and change the system, then the system keeps working, for or against all of us.
Phew, that was serious… 😅
Yeah, sorry, I had serious things on the mind this week!
I would love to know if any of this resonated for you, and also to hear from you if you think I’ve got it really wrong. Or you can just pitch in with the animated feature films that *should have gotten a mention instead.
Happy Friday, and here’s a wee treat from soul legend Sam Cooke, for those of you who have made it to the end.
First published on LinkedIn on 17 May 2024:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-do-we-make-change-reform-revolution-jen-ang-q9lje/
