A THOUGHT FOR NOW - THE NATURE OF PROFOUND SOCIETAL CHANGE

The Sun has seen the past, the present and the future, while humans endeavour to create our own future

As I see it, profound change, in this case, societal change, will normally arise from revolutionary forces, which partially or wholly transform the existing social order, by getting rid of the primary and secondary key players and institutions which are responsible for its maintenance. This kind of change can be extremely blood and destructive; sometimes resulting in the devastation of the country and its infra-structure, as we have seen in the attempted Egyptian rebellion and the even more deadly and destructive Libyan revolution/invasion. 

It goes without saying, that this is the kind of change which everybody of goodwill would want to avoid; not least because it raises serious questions about the legitimacy of the 'new social order' and sets in train the seed for its possible or probably demise or overthrow at some future point.


The other kind of social order change which I am thinking of, is the more gradualistic one; that which is spearheaded by a woman or a man or a group of like-minded people with a clear vision of the kind of society they would like to see coming into existence, and, with an organisation such a political party or a mass movement, set about the challenge of engaging, inspiring, and motivating the masses to join them in their endeavour.  We have seen this taking place with the Podemos movement in Spain, a similar movement in Italy, and, more recently, with mass movements such as 'Occupy Movement', and, even more recently, the political movement in the United States, being led by Bernie Sanders.

Of course, populist movements, of themselves, I believe, rarely will have enough momentum to achieve the goal of overthrowing the existing social order and successfully replacing it with a new viable social order, in one fell swoop, as it were.  We have seen this in the example of the 'Occupying Movement', which appears to have withered away, except for those strands of it which have successfully secreted themselves into the body politic of other existing and subsequent movements, such as small political parties, 'BlackLivesMatters, environmental movements, etc.  

This, to some extent, might have been the case with political parties such as Syriza, which has resulted from a coalition of different parties whose individual goals and interests were not so dissimilar as to preclude them coming together to form a viable entity which could compete effectively for more power than any of the constituent parties might have been able to achieve on their own.

The 'gradualistic approach to or method' of social change could be compared to a succession of sea waves battering and eventually overcoming a barrier in their path, with each succeeding wave subsiding after its struggle, but with its energy being absorb back back by the sea, to create more and bigger waves and maintain sufficient momentum to, eventually, overcome the opposing barrier.

 'Populist' movement such as the 'Occupying' one and that led by Bernie Sanders, if they are to be eventually successful, have to adopt what some might call a 'parasitic strategy' or a 'cuckoo strategy', in which they find and adopt suitable 'host bodies or organisation' to continue their struggle for social change.

This, in my view, is the kind of social order change which is likely to become more prevalent, as the 'big political parties' lose their support amongst a more politically diverse and sectional electorate, with no one party being able to credibly speak and act on behalf of all of them. Giving way to the birth of more coalition parties and governments.  

This would seem to make good sense, when, eg, we consider the likely outcome for Bernie Sanders supporters, who are now left stranded and disillusioned, with the choice of supporting Hillary Clinton, or Donald Trump or not voting. Now that Bernie  is dropping out of the race, with no tangible benefit for his millions of supporters; due to structure and dynamics of the two party system which the United States has been cursed with.

Live and enjoy your life to the fullest, and avoid adopting an all or nothing strategy which precludes you from joining with others to achieve successes which you, on your own, stand or would stand little chance of achieving.

There are more than one way to effect change