The Change Paradoxes
by Aakriti
I’m a SuperPerson in disguise, I will change the world. My latest battle has focused inwards — I’m trying to be a better ‘me’ before I start deciding what is ‘good’ and ‘evil’ for the world. Daring Greatly by Brene Brown has assisted me in the process — and has taught me how being kind to myself allows me to be kinder to others. So, I guess, in that one tiny way, I am changing something, I do set the ball rolling.
But is that enough, a voice in me asks, and I ponder. I want to see change in systems and cultures that have become blueprints for our life. For example, patriarchy has become one of those systems that dictates roles and responsibilities for all of us and unless we really start breaking it down, its autocratic rule shall remain. Another example, the hegemony given to that which is ‘scientific’ and ‘objective’ in all kinds of decision making. Stories and narratives, voices of the minority hardly find a place in these spaces and yet we continue to hold these as a standard.
Then how do we bring about change, I wonder.
Paradox of Choice: My friend wants to run an organization where employees are treated as human beings with agency rather than mindless workers. This person wants them to make choices about how to proceed with certain tasks and come up with their own ideas. But sometimes people don’t want that. Sometimes they want to be given specific tasks, roles and responsibilities, that can they be ticked off from their lists and they can go home. Sometimes they do not want the agency or the burden of responsibility that choice would give them. That’s what school and college taught them to do. What do we do here? Do we choose that they must choose or choose to take away their choices?
Paradox of Self — In changing myself, I change the world; in changing the world, I change myself. Can I dismantle patriarchy by being vocal on social media while I expect the men in my life to uphold certain standards of masculinity? I frequently find that so many of us want to change the world without changing ourselves. We want to talk and advocate mental health issues yet at the same time we stigmatize co-workers for not being ‘productive’ all the time. We want to uphold the privileges we get thanks to our caste, class, gender, sexuality, able-bodies but yet we want to do ‘good’ to others. How sustainable is that good?
Paradox of Systems — This the worst. As an amateur change-maker, a veteran cynic, and someone permanently wearing a critical lens — this is the absolute worst of all. I see so much wrong with the systems today, that I feel like planting my own new world (which, unfortunately is not possible). Where is the room for change? Do I set up an alternate system that will engage with few people or do I work with existing systems to oil them and make them function more efficiently and honestly?
Paradox of Action — Now I don’t know if this is completely internal or external, but for me this is a conversation between research and applicability. I like my warm nest of research on most days, but it leaves me off the ‘ground’. How much of something should I know/ research on before I jump in and start interacting with new people, communities, and systems. The warm cocoon of research is as problematic as being irresponsible and uninformed when interacting with someone completely new.
I am a novice SuperPerson with an exciting inner world. The outer world baffles me at every step and I struggle with both — the immense power I have to change the world, and my sheer insignificance in the larger scheme of things.
Some interesting reads —
How to Radically Change the World
Is Networking the New Caste System?
So You Want to Change the World? Better Read This First
