Generational idealism

One does not dismantle historical paradigms in a flash, not in decades, not in generations. One can rant and rave but will not succeed. Even in the few cases where bloody revolution did succeed in overthrowing a traditional power, the new victors hardly managed to trigger meaningful change. From millennia of momentum and habit, societies invariably revert to the only thing the world has known — the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a few. That is why the few successful models we have in the world today, unfortunately made up of mostly former colonizers, are of great interest to me. How has democracy or socialism tipped the scales of equity so dramatically in these countries? Yet, many others will not want to follow their sterling example, preferring to keep the severe imbalance on the guise of free enterprise or market forces.

Still, evolution will not be denied, too slow as it is to most advocates of any cause that seeks great change. It is always the younger generations that will introduce something new, just as it is the role of the older ones to fade away. Sometimes, the transition is smooth. At other times, like today, change can be abrupt as far as the fading generations are concerned. Serious and radical advancements in technology have been dizzying, collapsing the dominance of global companies like IBM, Kodak, Xerox and many others. In their places are Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon and so many new kids on the block ready to spring from anonymity to greatness. Whether we like it or not, change is moving powerfully and changing the world.

What I would like is to see that change find synergy and its players moving towards clear, common directions. Dismantling poverty should be among its priorities from the beginning where entrepreneurs are driven to grow their enterprises with a commitment to open doors of opportunities and resources to those who need them the most. Philanthropy or traditional charity does not cut it anymore. That way is good but seriously inadequate. Poverty cannot be a by-the-way concern but a central societal focus. And, to me, the younger generations are much more capable of a natural sympathy and empathy for the marginalized. Their way of doing business, too, is much more accommodating and egalitarian. My deepest hopes and unmitigated optimism are anchored on what I have seen among the younger generations, as though the generational idealism has its eye on kindness as well as innovation.