Doing the change

August 21, 2021

I am woefully behind on my reading goals this year, but I did have a chance to read one excellent book during my summer vacation -- Kajal Odedra's Do Something: Activism for Everyone.

The book starts from the premise that a certain amount of disruption is necessary to bring about the change we want to see in the world. Odedra's approach to disruption, however, is fresh and positive. It's about using the resources available to us to not only talk about change, but to take the concrete steps necessary to bring change to life.

I was particularly struck by the idea that we can all be activists. Indeed, activism is a concept that is much broader than protesting. It also includes other measures that are designed to mobilize communities. She includes concrete details about how to organize:

- What does victory look like?
- Who are the key decision-makers?
- What is your theory of change?
- What is your message to persuade?
- Which supporters do you need on your side?

It made me think about the philosophy of Stoicism and Seneca's letters, which discuss in detail the concepts of courage and justice. According to Seneca:

“Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow, and loses today. You are arranging what lies in Fortune's control, and abandoning what lies in yours. What are you looking at? To what goal are you straining? The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”

There is a synergy between the theory of activism and Seneca's philosophy: don't just think about and talk about change. We have to find all of the big and small ways that we can bring to life the world that we want and realize that it is up to us to make it happen. Do, and do today.

As Gandhi said, we need to be the change we want to see in the world. And in order to be the change, we cannot simply meditate on the change, but must do the change. Doing change happens in big ways but mostly small ways. It starts at home, in our communities and in the way we think about and treat each other. For V I V A C E, we must do the change of renaissance and solidarity. In art, in business and in life.

CPM