[400] Theory of Change

Often, a struggle to move something along belays the idea that change is “good and necessary.” Whether you need to evolve your business model to include modern streams of revenue, decide you've had enough of being oppressed, or are simply bored with your current circumstances, a novel take is almost out-of-hand considered a positive or correct course of action.

Think of the idea of being on “the wrong side of history.” This usually applies to racist old people who are so ostensibly wrong about things it's a wonder they had the foresight that led to your existence. What's telling about this idea to me is a very linear conception of ideas. As if certain things are inevitable. The forever saving grace of an empowered and wise society will the death of everything that came before. So many bones we'll be able to stand upon.

I think that while change is inevitable, if not the only “truth,” it happens for very banal and bad reasons. I think that merely regarding something as positive or revolutionary, often because you hadn't heard of it, is dangerous and naïve. I think the underlying psychology of why and when things need to change is a completely ignored part of our conversation.

We're not climbing a mountain. There is no “ultimate-self” or superior conception of human. Every bad thing that's ever existed still does and always will. I think a lot of the times we talk about laws or justice, we pretend that we're sitting on some kind of high horse with this illuminated perspective that's therefore impervious to what prompted injustices in the past.

Think about repealing regulatory laws. Think about the wage gap. Think about an inflated prison system. Think about fucking up the environment. You'll find at the heart of these topics is often a discussion about what's “fair.” Some insider will often argue that the mere peasant on the street couldn't appreciate the nuances of some internal world and therefore the metrics of accountability need to be stretched or ignored. It's literally the same pattern across any kind of gross failing of humanity. Sometimes I hear testimony in Congress that amounts to 2 children crying to mother about who really stole the cookies.

Advocacy and awareness are often touted as the harbingers of the enlightened future. Maybe one day we'll get so good at it we won't even need an entire month to figure out breast cancer is bad. To me, it's a little like saying “well you need a paint brush before you can create like Da Vinci.” It's a very incidental part of the entirety of his person, no? Leaving aside how often I've heard people say “I get it, I still don't care.”

Accountability is an exercise. Keeping things the same can be as necessary and worthwhile as changing them. If you can refrain from believing that you are justified in changing things up because you're bored or are trying to misrepresent some new world of finance, the task of maintaining the ship can still be noble work. There will never be a “new world.” We'll only have shifted into different habits. I have to believe there's some component to this that is operating in “traditional values” types. Something about how they've conducted their lives has clearly left a positive impact and what a shame to watch as the world swirls the bowl, I imagine.

Do you change for the sake of it? Can you recognize when someone's “big life decisions” are a kind of posturing and marketing for some new decadent brand? I think we've ignored our culture changing into one that demonizes the weak and poor. We take it for granted that our institutions will fuck us, that we're stuck yelling in the streets, and that it's best to seek out any form of self-comforting distraction. Thus the new habit of being plugged in all the time to tweets and TV.

Protect what you have. If you can show objectively something about your life or habits that speaks to the whole in objectively good ways, don't let your ideas of it start to degrade because your mind is on high alert for what's new and shiny. Don't let tired arguments like “it's too complicated” win as if the world hasn't habitually teetered on the brink of one disaster to the next. Endless self-help and business books try to remind you to be fearless and actually get off your ass as if a multi-billion dollar empire doesn't arise from your Halo stats.

In protecting though, you have to be aware of why something may need to change. Repealing Glass-Stegal because “well, banks are even more complicated today, so we should let them merge” is flat out stupid and easy to understand why it's stupid. So is “poor people should be put in jail because they're poor or black.” So is, “but I'm happy and smart, why can't everyone just be like me?” The world will carry on like you don't care, like you don't have standards, like you never learned your lesson. Hell, if you manage to do the proverbial “waking up” and simply be the example you know needs to be set, the change becomes the illusion. The good has and will always be there right alongside the bad.

Now you get to start asking what and whether you want for yourself verses other people. You get to ask yourself why you think you're so important. You can still be hyper self-obsessed, but to more defined ends. You'll beget voluntary change or acceptance whilst still being able to appreciate what happens if/when your “new” metrics become corrupted. You pay and play with both sides of the coin.