essay about social cultural and political change

Influence of Political, Social, and Cultural Issues Analytical Essay

Political, social, and cultural factors in the world have significant influence on the economic and security status of a society. The political, social, and cultural factors are parameters that reflect the stability of the local states, nations or the entire world. All countries are striving to shape their economic and security aspects by ensuring stability of political, social, and cultural factors.

Steinlin argues that, “the idea of development is the most recent stage of the enlightenment notion of human progress as a continual process of internal and external expansion based on values of rationality, secularity, and efficiency” (9).

Internal expansion involves local and national industrialization strategies geared towards economic growth while external expansion entails being in tandem with the globalization development.

The objective of achieving economic growth and stability is to eliminate poverty, which is a perpetual issue in the world full of inequalities and competition. Therefore, poverty is an issue that transcends political, social, and cultural dimensions and it affects individual members in the society at all levels, be it at local, national, or international levels.

People are unable satisfy basic human basic needs due to poverty. In the society, there are two types of poverty viz. the absolute poverty, and the relative poverty.

Absolute poverty is complete inability to satisfy the basic human needs while relative poverty is the inability to afford quality and standard human needs. Steinlin defines poverty “as a human condition characterized by the sustained or chronic deprivation of the resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights” (9).

Poverty dictates the kind of lifestyles that people live and that explain why there are various socioeconomic classes of people in the society.

Human health and education depends on the economic status of the individual, family, the society. Compliant political, social, and cultural aspects in a society that seeks to keep abreast with economic development due to the globalization provide an environment where economy thrives.

Poor economic strategies by the government adversely affect the health and educational status of its citizens. Deprivation of the resources severely affects the living standards of the people for they will not afford quality and standard healthcare and education.

Poverty directly reflects poor health and low educational status of individual members in the society. Since poverty has social, political, and cultural dimensions, it affects everybody in the society. Therefore, so long as poverty still looms in the society, there would be hardly any achievements towards improving the health and educational standards of the people.

Poverty due to deprivation of basic human needs or inequality encourages the emergence of criminal activities in the society. The criminal activities in the society are proportional to the level of poverty.

Steinlin argues that, “poverty deprives individuals of privileges such as choices, security, and power needed for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other fundamental civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights” (13). This means that poverty discriminates against the poor in the society leaving them to resort to criminal activities as means of survival.

Eventually, the society becomes an unsafe place to both the poor and the rich due to poverty and crimes respectively. Therefore, the solutions to poverty lie in the government efforts that shape political, cultural, and social parameters, which determine poverty levels in a country.

Works Cited

Steinlin, Marc. “Basics on the Human Rights Based Approach to Development.” Helvetas Swiss Association for International Cooperation 6.2 (2004): 1-12.

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Political Context and Social Change

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• Martin J. Tomasik 2 &
• Rainer K. Silbereisen 3  

Ecological systems theory

Social change refers to changes in the political or economic context of societies that affect the vast majority of the population, albeit not necessarily in a uniform way. It may occur gradually (as in the process of globalization) or abruptly (as in the case of political revolutions) and be more or less broad in its scope. Social change can be driven by collective action, changes in values , technological innovation, and other exogenous or endogenous factors. Usually, various political institutions, norms of living together, and cultural symbols are affected simultaneously.

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In this essay, we describe how changes in the political system (such as German unification after the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe) may affect the individual quality of life . We begin with the description of the ecological contexts in which individual development is embedded and argue that political changes may affect all these contexts...

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20.1 Understanding Social Change

Learning objectives.

• Understand the changes that accompany modernization.
• Discuss the functionalist and conflict perspectives on social change.

Social change refers to the transformation of culture, behavior, social institutions, and social structure over time. We are familiar from Chapter 5 “Social Structure and Social Interaction” with the basic types of society: hunting-and-gathering, horticultural and pastoral, agricultural, industrial, and postindustrial. In looking at all of these societies, we have seen how they differ in such dimensions as size, technology, economy, inequality, and gender roles. In short, we have seen some of the ways in which societies change over time. Another way of saying this is that we have seen some of the ways in which societies change as they become more modern. To understand social change, then, we need to begin to understand what it means for a society to become more modern. We considered this briefly in Chapter 5 “Social Structure and Social Interaction” and expand on it here.

Modernization

Modernization refers to the process and impact of becoming more modern. More specifically, it refers to the gradual shift from hunting-and-gathering societies to postmodern societies, as outlined in Chapter 5 “Social Structure and Social Interaction” , and perhaps especially to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century.

The terms modern and modernization have positive connotations; it sounds good to modernize and to be modern. Modernization implies that progress has been made and is continuing to be made, and who would not want progress? Yet modernization also has a downside, as we will see in this section and in the later discussion of the environment.

A related problem with the terms and concepts of modern and modernization is that many people think of Western nations when considering the most modern nations in the world today. This implies that Western society is the ideal to which other societies should aspire. While there are many good things about Western societies, it is important to avoid the ethnocentrism of assuming that Western societies are better because they are more modern. In fact, one reason that many people in the Middle East and elsewhere dislike the United States is that they resent the “Westernization” of their societies from the influence of the United States and other wealthy Western nations. When they see Coca-Cola and Pepsi logos and the McDonald’s golden arches in their nations, they fear Western influence and the loss of their own beliefs and traditions.

These caveats notwithstanding, societies have become much more modern over time, to put it mildly. We thus cannot fully understand society and social life without appreciating how societies have changed as they have become more modern. Not surprisingly, sociologists have recognized the importance of modernization ever since the discipline of sociology began in the 19th century, and much of the work of sociology’s founders—Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, Karl Marx, and others—focused on how and why societies have changed as they became more modern.

We can draw on their efforts and related work by later sociologists and by anthropologists to develop an idea of the differences modernization has made for societies and individuals. Several dimensions and effects of modernization seem apparent (Nolan & Lenski, 2009).

First, as societies evolve, they become much larger and more heterogeneous . This means that people are more different from each other than when societies were much smaller, and it also means that they ordinarily cannot know each other nearly as well. Larger, more modern societies thus typically have weaker social bonds and a weaker sense of community than small societies and place more of an emphasis on the needs of the individual.

As societies become more modern, they begin to differ from nonmodern societies in several ways. In particular, they become larger and more heterogeneous, they lose their traditional ways of thinking, and they gain in individual freedom and autonomy.

Thomas Hawk – Big City Turn Me Loose and Set Me Free – CC BY-NC 2.0.

We can begin to appreciate the differences between smaller and larger societies when we contrast a small college of 1,200 students with a large university of 40,000 students. Perhaps you had this contrast in mind when you were applying to college and had a preference for either a small or a large institution. In a small college, classes might average no more than 20 students; these students get to know each other well and often have a lot of interaction with the professor. In a large university, classes might hold 600 students or more, and everything is more impersonal. Large universities do have many advantages, but they probably do not have as strong a sense of community as is found at small colleges.

A second aspect of modernization is a loss of traditional ways of thinking. This allows a society to be more creative and to abandon old ways that may no longer be appropriate. However, it also means a weakening or even ending of the traditions that helped define the society and gave it a sense of identity.

A third aspect of modernization is the growth of individual freedom and autonomy. As societies grow, become more impersonal, and lose their traditions and sense of community, their norms become weaker, and individuals thus become freer to think for themselves and to behave in new ways. Although most of us would applaud this growth in individual freedom, it also means, as Émile Durkheim (1895/1962) recognized long ago, that people feel freer to deviate from society’s norms and thus to commit deviance. If we want a society that values individual freedom, Durkheim said, we automatically must have a society with deviance.

Is modernization good or bad? This is a simplistic question about a very complex concept, but a quick answer is that it is both good and bad. We see evidence for both responses in the views of sociologists Ferdinand Tönnies, Weber, and Durkheim. As Chapter 5 “Social Structure and Social Interaction” discussed, Tönnies (1887/1963) said that modernization meant a shift from Gemeinschaft (small societies with strong social bonds) to Gesellschaft (large societies with weaker social bonds and more impersonal social relations). Tönnies lamented the loss of close social bonds and of a strong sense of community resulting from modernization, and he feared that a sense of rootlessness begins to replace the feeling of stability and steadiness characteristic of small, older societies.

Weber (1921/1978) was also concerned about modernization. The hallmarks of modernization, he thought, are rationalization, a loss of tradition, and the rise of impersonal bureaucracy. He despaired over the impersonal quality of rational thinking and bureaucratization, as he thought it was a dehumanizing influence.

Durkheim (1893/1933) took a less negative view of modernization. He certainly appreciated the social bonds and community feeling, which he called mechanical solidarity , characteristic of small, traditional societies. However, he also thought that these societies stifled individual freedom and that social solidarity still exists in modern societies. This solidarity, which he termed organic solidarity , stems from the division of labor, in which everyone has to depend on everyone else to perform their jobs. This interdependence of roles, Durkheim said, creates a solidarity that retains much of the bonding and sense of community found in premodern societies.

We have already commented on important benefits of modernization that are generally recognized: modernization promotes creativity and individual freedom and autonomy. These developments in turn usually mean that a society becomes more tolerant of beliefs and behaviors that it formerly would have disapproved and even condemned. Modern societies, then, generally feature more tolerance than older societies. Many people, undoubtedly including most sociologists, regard greater tolerance as a good thing, but others regard it as a bad thing because they favor traditional beliefs and behaviors.

Beyond these abstract concepts of social bonding, sense of community, and tolerance, modern societies are certainly a force for both good and bad in other ways. They have produced scientific discoveries that have saved lives, extended life spans, and made human existence much easier than imaginable in the distant past and even in the recent past. But they have also polluted the environment, engaged in wars that have killed tens of millions, and built up nuclear arsenals that, even with the end of the Cold War, still threaten the planet. Modernization, then, is a double-edged sword. It has given us benefits too numerous to count, but it also has made human existence very precarious.

Sociological Perspectives on Social Change

Sociological perspectives on social change fall into the functionalist and conflict approaches. As usual, both views together offer a more complete understanding of social change than either view by itself (Vago, 2004). Table 20.1 “Theory Snapshot” summarizes their major assumptions.

Table 20.1 Theory Snapshot

The Functionalist Understanding

The functionalist understanding of social change is based on insights developed by different generations of sociologists. Early sociologists likened change in society to change in biological organisms. Taking a cue from the work of Charles Darwin, they said that societies evolved just as organisms do, from tiny, simple forms to much larger and more complex structures. When societies are small and simple, there are few roles to perform, and just about everyone can perform all of these roles. As societies grow and evolve, many new roles develop, and not everyone has the time or skill to perform every role. People thus start to specialize their roles and a division of labor begins. As noted earlier, sociologists such as Durkheim and Tönnies disputed the implications of this process for social bonding and a sense of community, and this basic debate continues today.

Several decades ago, Talcott Parsons (1966), the leading 20th-century figure in functionalist theory, presented an equilibrium model of social change. Parsons said that society is always in a natural state of equilibrium, defined as a state of equal balance among opposing forces. Gradual change is both necessary and desirable and typically stems from such things as population growth, technological advances, and interaction with other societies that brings new ways of thinking and acting. However, any sudden social change disrupts this equilibrium. To prevent this from happening, other parts of society must make appropriate adjustments if one part of society sees too sudden a change.

Functionalist theory assumes that sudden social change, as by the protest depicted here, is highly undesirable, whereas conflict theory assumes that sudden social change may be needed to correct inequality and other deficiencies in the status quo.

Kashfi Halford – More Riot Police – CC BY-NC 2.0.

The functionalist perspective has been criticized on a few grounds. The perspective generally assumes that the change from simple to complex societies has been very positive, when in fact, as we have seen, this change has also proven costly in many ways. It might well have weakened social bonds, and it has certainly imperiled human existence. Functionalist theory also assumes that sudden social change is highly undesirable, when such change may in fact be needed to correct inequality and other deficiencies in the status quo.

Conflict Theory

Whereas functional theory assumes the status quo is generally good and sudden social change is undesirable, conflict theory assumes the status quo is generally bad. It thus views sudden social change in the form of protest or revolution as both desirable and necessary to reduce or eliminate social inequality and to address other social ills. Another difference between the two approaches concerns industrialization, which functional theory views as a positive development that helped make modern society possible. In contrast, conflict theory, following the views of Karl Marx, says that industrialization exploited workers and thus increased social inequality.

In one other difference between the two approaches, functionalist sociologists view social change as the result of certain natural forces, which we will discuss shortly. In this sense, social change is unplanned even though it happens anyway. Conflict theorists, however, recognize that social change often stems from efforts by social movements to bring about fundamental changes in the social, economic, and political systems. In his sense social change is more “planned,” or at least intended, than functional theory acknowledges.

Critics of conflict theory say that it exaggerates the extent of social inequality and that it sometimes overemphasizes economic conflict while neglecting conflict rooted in race/ethnicity, gender, religion, and other sources. Its Marxian version also erred in predicting that capitalist societies would inevitably undergo a socialist-communist revolution.

Key Takeaways

• As societies become more modern, they become larger and more heterogeneous. Traditional ways of thinking decline, and individual freedom and autonomy increase.
• Functionalist theory favors slow, incremental social change, while conflict theory favors fast, far-reaching social change to correct what it views as social inequalities and other problems in the status quo.

For Your Review

• If you had to do it over again, would you go to a large university, a small college, or something in between? Why? How does your response relate to some of the differences between smaller, traditional societies and larger, modern societies?
• When you think about today’s society and social change, do you favor the functionalist or conflict view on the kind of social change that is needed? Explain your answer.

Durkheim, É. (1933). The division of labor in society . London, England: The Free Press. (Original work published 1893).

Durkheim, É. (1962). The rules of sociological method (S. Lukes, Ed.). New York, NY: Free Press. (Original work published 1895).

Nolan, P., & Lenski, G. (2009). Human societies: An introduction to macrosociology (11th ed.). Boulder, CO: Paradigm.

Parsons, T. (1966). Societies: Evolutionary and comparative perspectives . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Tönnies, F. (1963). Community and society . New York, NY: Harper and Row. (Original work published 1887).

Vago, S. (2004). Social change (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Weber, M. (1978). Economy and society: An outline of interpretive sociology (G. Roth & C. Wittich, Eds.). Berkeley: University of California Press. (Original work published 1921).

Sociology Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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17 Social and Political Change

Brad D. Olson; Jack F. O'Brien; and Ericka D. Mingo

Chapter Seventeen Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

• Understand characteristics of dehumanizing and harmful societal structures
• Understand which means are most effective to reduce harm when engaged in social and political change processes
• Understand how to engage in sustainable forms of activism

In the photo above, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is pictured leading 600 demonstrators on a civil-rights march through angry white crowds in the Gage Park section of Chicago’s southwest side. After King was struck by a rock, he was escorted by his bodyguard Frank Mingo. Frank later said: “No need to tell you anything different, I was sure scared. I got hit five or six times that day. But I didn’t mind. That was what I was there for, to protect Dr. King. My wife and I have three boys growing up. I felt that anything I could do to improve society would help them too.”

Part of the community organizing aspect of Community Psychology is understanding the long game, as the quote above nicely demonstrates. Many community psychologists work to reduce the symptoms of oppression through programming and community-based participatory research . Critical and liberation community psychologists, particularly ones engaged in activism , work to use psychology to confront oppressive actors and organizations. Frank Mingo worked diligently for the Poor Peoples Movement and the Back Home Movement, which was a part of a repatriation of the south by African Americans, laying claim to land that was legally theirs. Both Mingo and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. set examples of ways community psychologists can learn about courage and persistent involvement toward social change. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s writings and speeches, in particular, demonstrate ways in which community psychologists can use their skills to be effective and, at the same time, remain ethical and positive in their activism.

Community Psychology programs often focus on changing inequalities for people who are suffering, but the means have to be considered with extreme care. The message of this chapter is that rather than community psychologists being thought as the sole agents to “empower” others, we need to work together with community groups in collaborative efforts to foster their own empowerment . In other words, we can bring people together and work as allies with those who experience injustice (Olson et al., 2011).

Part of being an effective ally is turning our attention toward those responsible for  structural violence . Structural violence is a way to understand that violence and harm are caused not only by individual actors but by unjust laws, dehumanizing structures , and other features of the environment—all of which, of course, were created by human beings. To summarize, we feel that attention should be placed on the actors, policies, rules, and structures that harm community members. As the well-known psychologist Amos Wilson said, “If you want to understand any problem in America, you need to focus on who profits from that problem, not who suffers from the problem” (1998). Wilson is referring to those who have power to engage in any form of injustice whether it is due to greed, indifference, or racism.

The key question is: how do community psychologists attempt to tip the scale and change oppressive organizational, corporate, or governmental policies? It is often difficult to fight a powerful opposition, and the obstacles can seem insurmountable, as they were during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. When the goals seem impossible, and a sense of hopelessness and helplessness has set in, values and passion can provide the drive to continue working for social justice . We will show in this chapter examples of how this might be accomplished, as well as how you can remain inspired and motivated through it all.

COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY AND OPPRESSION

Amos Wilson (1998) felt that the elite effectively secure and enhance their power, hiding their real actions and motivations, all the while appearing not to do so. This can often leave those who have been oppressed to believe that they themselves were responsible for their struggles. Part of the work of community psychologists is to pay attention to those who have experienced oppression as a result of this structural violence. This work within communities is to help its members unravel these kinds of manipulations. To understand oppression and those who are oppressed, Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed offers important insights. For Freire (2007), the oppressors ’ psychology is one of hierarchy, suppression, and dehumanization , and those oppressors will never liberate the oppressed . Freire felt that our ordinary way of thinking, “an eye for an eye,” would just lead to the oppressed replacing the oppressor, only to keep dehumanizing structures the same. Community psychologists work with community members to help them identify aspects of structural violence in order to change those structures. Follow this link for some helpful definitions related to oppression and power .

Examples of oppressive systems are the Guantánamo Bay detention camp , located in the Guantánamo Bay US Naval Base in Cuba, and secret Central Intelligence Agency black sites throughout the world. At Guantánamo, prisoners’ conditions of detention fell under human rights definitions of torture (find more about the abuses at Guantánamo from the perspective of a detainee ). The torture program at the Central Intelligence Agency black sites designed by psychologists led to permanent psychological harm of the Muslim detainees. There were some psychologists who sought to expose these human rights violations. This is how it came about: due to media reports of extreme interrogations by the US government, the American Psychological Association (APA) convened a task force in 2005 to examine psychological ethics in national security, and this task force endorsed the continued presence of psychologists to use their psychological tools against detainees.

Following the task force report, members of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology   mobilized to hold APA accountable to its own ethical standards. The hallmark of the Coalition was the unmasking of policies regarding unethical psychologist involvement in torture. The following case study describes this coalition and some of its work.

Case Study 17.1 Coalition for an Ethical Psychology and the Hoffman Report

A community psychologist, a psychoanalyst, a historian of psychology and other clinical psychologists are leaders of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology. The members of this coalition created a collaborative, non-hierarchical place for their activist work. They shared information and developed key allies with other organizations who could aid them in their efforts to expose the collusion, pertaining to the torture program, between the APA and the national security sector. By working with these allies, stakeholders in and outside of the field of psychology, their efforts eventually led to James Risen’s New York Times articles that detailed this collusion. The articles revealed APA’s collusion in allowing psychologists to be engaged in interrogation procedures that involved torture, and this led to the APA commissioning an independent review by David Hoffman, eventually culminating in what has been called the Hoffman Report . The Hoffman Report presented communications and actions taken by APA officials and members of the Department of Defense, Central Intelligence Agency, and Department of Justice that pointed to coordinated efforts and knowledge of APA Ethics Code subversions. The Hoffman Report and the aftermath led to increased accountability within the organization. Video discussions by Coalition members and their allies can be found below.

The creation of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology is an illustration of what psychologists can do to combat oppressive forms of injustice, and in this case, the violation of human rights.

USE OF PARTICIPATORY MEANS

One job of community psychologists is to engage in dialogue with the oppressed and find what Freire called their generative themes , the core issues that face a group (Freire, 2007). Freire believed that community members are the best ones to identify the nature of the problems they face and participate in the solutions. When they align themselves with those facing oppressive conditions, they can, together, start directing their attention to unjust actors who control structures. For example, when the UN created the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (United Nations, 2006), those in the disability community objected because they had been left out of this process. People with disabilities were successful in demanding that they were the best ones to shape the foundational principles of the Convention, and they indeed became instrumental members. The famous phrase that came out of the disability community was “nothing about us without us.” Follow this link to hear young participants’ perspectives within the process.

Within Community Psychology, Julian Rappaport (1981) coined the term empowerment, which is very compatible with the value of helping the oppressed gain access to resources and increase self-determination. Rappaport often cautioned community psychologists against suggesting they were in charge of “empowering” community members. Rather, the empowering process is one in which all parties work together to bring about a greater sense of collective efficacy and work to equalize power throughout society.

Rappaport made an important distinction between empowerment and other approaches called needs-based and rights-based strategies. Needs-based strategies put those with the lived experiences on the dependent side of the hierarchy. Trying to deal with their needs, and focusing on pathologies or limitations becomes the focus. When focusing on the rights-based strategies , it is too easy to adopt a position of fighting “for” but not “with” community members. The Third Way of Empowerment (Rappaport, 1987), as described in this chapter, is very much aligned with working with community members. However, sometimes it is difficult to work directly with the community that is oppressed. As in the example of the Coalition in Case Study 17.1, it was impossible to work with the detainees because they were in secluded and restricted detention settings. Nevertheless, the Coalition communicates with multiple groups in an effort to help “educate” rather than “train” others. “Training is defined as teaching a group what to think rather than how to think. This makes the people dependent rather than assisting in developing skills which could be used for independent activity. It rewards behavior that operates against their group’s interest, promoting individual rather than group achievement, and instilling negative self-concepts and low self-esteem” – Bobby E. Wright  (Anonymous, 1982) Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed was similarly all about a new form of non-hierarchical education. Like the “empowerment process”, it was about collaboration and dialogue––where the teacher is also the student, and the student also the teacher. When working with communities, empowerment involves everyone working toward common, mutually-decided upon goals.

Community psychologists who engage in activism can also learn much from Rappaport’s notion of paradox , which is something that combines what seem to be contradictory qualities (Rappaport, 1981). In doing community work, we often encounter paradoxes, where two apparently contradictory truths do not necessarily contradict each other. For example, one paradox is that the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology was engaged in an empowerment process, but there was no direct contact with the prisoners, the people they were attempting to empower. Although this might seem to be a paradox, it is possible to do empowerment work and not be in direct contact with those who are oppressed. In engaging, investigating, and highlighting the side not receiving enough attention, empowerment can occur.

MEANS MATTER

Praxis means putting an idea or theory into practice. This is often a repetitive process whereby a theory, lesson, or skill is turned into an actualized action. Community psychologists learn from community members, co-design research projects, and try to put that learning into real action and activism. They then see how things work, and then return to the drawing board. Ethics, morals, and values are all essential parts of the praxis process. But here there is sometimes a division between those who use any means to get to their goals met and others who feel the means have to be ethical. Several community activists, such as Saul Alinsky and Malcolm X (particularly in his early life) felt that any means could be used as long as the ultimate goal is just. Sometimes using any means results in cutting corners or even harming others.

To use an analogy, the ring of power in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is often attempted to be used for good, but it can only be used for evil. The characters with the best of ends in mind can become corrupted, due to the influence of the ring. So, what we are suggesting is that the means of reaching one’s goals in social justice is of importance. Poet and activist Audre Lorde famously declared, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” (2007). If the problem is oppression and violence, using oppression and violence to achieve one’s goals might not be effective or just. Malcolm X realized this toward the end of his life when he sojourned to Mecca and saw people of all races, nationalities, and backgrounds praying together in unity. This radically altered his views on working to dismantle the oppressive power structures in this country, and he began preaching more about love and collaboration. To demonstrate the difference in approach to the means of activism, Case Study 17.2 compares different means of two influential social activists.

Case Study 17.2 Alinsky and Gandhi

Alinsky and Gandhi were both tricksters in defying powerful individuals, but they were also different in the means with which they carried out their work. Alinsky in Chicago believed in confidently insulting those in power and even using tactics of deception. In other words, all means could be used to get to the objective. As an example, in Alinsky’s book Rules for Radicals, he recommended: “find their [the opposition’s] rules and use those rules against them–because they find these rules precious and they cannot live up to them.”

A different approach was used by Gandhi in British Colonial India, where he engaged in nonviolence and humility, attempting to make the means ethical, and always striving to work with love for all human beings. In India in the 1930s, a British “rule” or “law” was a salt tax, making it illegal for the people of India to make or sell salt or even to collect it from the sea. Gandhi engaged in civil disobedience by initiating a march to the sea to collect the salt. This act inspired all of India and made the British look foolish, as they were unable to stop the march. In this way, Gandhi successfully took on the British without using their oppressive and violent tactics. His means were just and not corrupted in radical opposition to British rule. But, as is often the case when engaging in defiance of oppressive systems, Gandhi was punished by incarceration for his salt march.

It is in choosing the means of activism that a tempting crossroads presents itself to community psychologists, and we would argue for the adoption and use of ethical means to reach the goals.

The Means of Working in Partnership With

The means by which we partner with community members also matters. Community members are sometimes labeled with oppressive terms: the disenfranchised , vulnerable, the marginalized, the poor, those of “high risk”. The words we use do matter, and even the term “community organizer” suggests a person who is in charge of the collaborative spirit. Therefore words that suggest hierarchy, where one might have more power than others in the change process, are outside the spirit of Community Psychology.

In any praxis-based campaign, there is also a need to address the oppressor’s dehumanizing and colonizing nature. But, as we saw with Gandhi and with Martin Luther King’s work, this can be done in an ethical way that does not replicate the oppressors’ way of being. For an example of how to practically consider and address colonization using Community Psychology tools, learn more from Demystifying Decolonization: A Practical Example from the Classroom .

Ultimately, an important task of the community psychologist engaged in activism is to try to ethically persuade others using the tools of research and community-based action. Some individuals will never change and with others, it will take considerable time. Sometimes in a democracy, what is needed is to convince a majority of people, and encourage them to continue to engage in voting and social action. Community psychologists can also help keep groups of people cohesive, effective, and willing to engage in a long-term struggle despite criticism, insults, threats, and even risks to one’s career.

The Means of Assessing and Working on Oneself through Self-Purification

The activist’s journey is not only outwards toward bringing about change, but is also inward. It involves a thorough examination of one’s own imbalances, flaws, virtues, and motivations. This is often referred to as part of the “ self-purification ” process. When considering one’s motivations, one might ask if they are for accomplishing one’s own goals and priorities or if they are for the advocacy of others. An important civil rights activist who became the first female African American Episcopal priest was Pauli Murray who expressed a modest realism that comes from a life of self-purification. She stated, referring to the many activist campaigns she engaged in:

“In not a single one of these little campaigns was I victorious. In other words, in each case, I personally failed, but I have lived to see the thesis upon which I was operating vindicated. And what I very often say is that I’ve lived to see my lost causes found.”

This self-purification process is often a necessary element in social and political change, which as described earlier, is by doing it “with” not just “for” others. Gandhi, for example, believed purification processes were the most powerful antidote to external violence in the world, and helped a person sacrifice one’s well-being for the larger cause. Gandhi’s purification was a daily process which was clear to anyone who looked at how he both dressed and ate. The purification process could even be seen in how he responded to being attacked. Gandhi was incarcerated by the British after the salt march, and many other times was abused by powerful officials. But due to these abuses, social change occurred when the public was shocked and angered by the way he was treated by government officials. The act of sacrifice shifts public perceptions of the horrendous situations facing those being oppressed. The sacrifice and pain endured by such individuals as Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela of South Africa existed in a broad, public view, which can galvanize public support for social change.

The Means of Exposing and Changing the Oppressive Power Structures

It might appear that activism has only a loosely structured set of rules. In fact, there are no definitive rules to the liberation process, as much depends on context and on the many paradoxes one encounters when trying to change societal systems. Many community activists, such as Alinsky, focused on finding the immoral weaknesses or vulnerabilities of those in power, and inciting the police or public officials to over-react. The activist takes action, like in Gandhi’s salt march, in order to get the powerful system of oppression to react to the defiance.

Therefore there are patterns that help us, but activism is less a set of procedures that can be learned and memorized and more a process of experimentation. This perspective frees one to take risks, but our goal is to use ethical means so that when we are wrong, we will not bring about harm to others. It also gives us additional motivation, and that is of learning, invention, and searching for truth. Altering the path of an abusive power structure is intimidating, and Gandhi saw this as experimentation toward truth. Gandhi and King’s commitment to nonviolence showed the real possibilities, even death, to those that challenge the status quo. These activists embraced a self-purification process, but as Gandhi said, “non-violence laughs at the might of the tyrant” (Gandhi, 2001, p. 57). Nevertheless, both Gandhi and King used self-purification to avoid hating the enemy. Gandhi described this through a story about a burglar breaking into one’s house and the need to treat the thief as family, a concept referred to as critical kinship (Olson et al., 2011). We need to be critical, but at the same time see the opposition as kin.

One might ask whether students can participate in this process of taking on the power structure. The next case study shows it is possible, and it began with student reactions to the lynching of 128 African Americans living in the south. These killings had been unsolved for decades, and when the Justice Department withheld information about these civil rights injustices, it operated as an oppressive power structure. The hiding of this information can lead to cross-generational trauma, as the victims’ immediate loved ones and descendants have to live with the agony of unanswered questions, such as “What happened? Who did it? And why?” The students in Case Study 17.3 sought to answer these questions by confronting the source of the structural violence.

Case Study 17.3 Students Taking Action For Justice

A teacher of Government and Politics at Highstown High School in New Jersey told the students about this historical civil rights injustice, the unsolved lynching of 128 African Americans. They merely asked, “Should we try to do something?” (Jackman, 2019). In a true community organizing fashion, the class made it their mission to bring some semblance of peace of mind to the loved ones of the victims. The class drafted a bill that would force the compilation and immediate release of all the withheld case files to the public. The students understood the importance of focusing on the historical injustices and rectifying them. With the implementation of their activism, the students demonstrated a successful model of praxis . The students conducted research in order to fully understand the issue, took the time to meet with the families of the victims, and made sure to set the agenda through a strategic media campaign. Their efforts were noticed by two US lawmakers, who advocated for the bill and encouraged citizens to pressure the President to sign the proposed bill into law. The students also engaged the President through social media, and the high school allowed the cancellation of classes to undertake the social media effort. The President did sign the bill to release the withheld cases.

The students demonstrated the power of effective community organizing, community engagement, and speaking truth to power in order to take on an oppressive power structure.

PRAXIS AS AN ALTERNATIVE PROCESS

A social justice campaign is rarely a single event or a single march. Organizations begin and fizzle but activists continue to fight for justice. Having a framework for the intricacies of social change is needed for the long-term process to be successful. As discussed earlier, this process is referred to as praxis, which is the cycles of participatory action and research: community input, research, action, and reflection (Olson et al., 2011). Part of praxis is seeing what works and what does not work. When barriers and obstacles are insurmountable, certain tactics need to be let go of in order to search for new creative ways. Community psychologists plan for readjustments, adaptations, setbacks, small wins , and unexpected barriers. They also need to remind themselves of the higher goals they are trying to achieve. A long-term commitment is often the best ally a change agent has, along with allies from the community, in bringing about real change against those who control the status quo (Jason, 2013).

The analysis moves in spirals toward the best possible fit: the combination, the generation, the cyclical action—this is what a temporal campaign involves, until there is progress—a small win, and then another, and another, until transformational change gets going. To implement these processes, finding or creating alternative social settings helps protect individuals and the community from daunting oppression and barriers to change.

We are all part of many settings, some of which are more or less consistent with our social justice identities. To the extent one finds oneself in settings that support oppressor norms, it is possible to work from the inside to change them. When impossible to change, it is often possible to leave a setting, and seek or create new settings that better support one’s values. The creation of alternative settings has been described by Seymour Sarason , whose book The Creation of Settings and The Future Societies has much information on these alternative settings (Sarason, 2000). The creation of such settings is exactly what is needed for the sustainability of campaigns for social justice. The creation of alternative settings takes time and commitment, but they can provide an essential home base for sustainable activist work.

Sustainability of the Campaign Process

In a praxis-based campaign, it is important to consider what needs to be done first. One of the earliest stages involves generating, with others, hypotheses or ideas for change. A logic model can be developed that provides an outline, and a theoretical structure of how assets and activities are likely to help obtain short, intermediate, and long-term goals. The plan can be simple sketches that represent how one is going to break through the barriers ahead to meet the eventual long-term objectives. This is like a planning notebook and one can connect it with experiences, arguments, and evidence. If the logic model is created as a visual with concepts and arrows, it is possible to see the whole plan in a single glance. The whole group can then discuss and revise, using it as a conversation piece to connect it with all of the group’s experiences and where the group is trying to go together.

Ultimately, community psychologists measure whether or not their actions and efforts were successful in the short and long term. But what should the outcomes be? Certainly, it is useful to know if the program was successful. What actions helped? When it worked, what was the active combination of ingredients that had the effect? How do we study and help amplify where good grassroots connections are happening? Another goal is to understand how we can make a campaign more sustainable. How can capacity be built when campaigns fizzle out? Can we hold onto the small wins and keep going? To answers these questions, and to avoid burnout and keep the campaign sustainable, it is important to pace oneself, and ensure that self-care and mutual education are present at every part of the process (Olson et al., 2011).

Let’s provide another example of a problem that was encountered at a university. One of the highest members of the university’s administration had been actively involved in the APA’s collusion that made it permissible for psychologists to be involved in interrogation settings that included torture. As described earlier in the example with the coalition , this collusion came to the public light following the July 2015 publication of the Hoffman Report (see also the material cited in Case Study 17.1). The administrative official was mentioned dozens of times in this Report, and when the school student newspaper emailed a psychology undergraduate student named Jack O’Brien, asking for his reaction, the following case study shows what next occurred.

Case Study 17.4  The Vincentians Against Torture Coalition

Jack O’Brien was interviewed with the reporter for the school newspaper, and he gave his thoughts regarding the university official who was alleged to have been instrumental in the facilitation of changing APA policy and procedures that allowed for human rights violations perpetrated by psychologists in interrogation settings. After being quoted in the school paper, O’Brien started a petition to remove the official from the university and organized the Vincentians Against Torture Coalition. He collaborated with several local human rights organizations such as the World Can’t Wait and Voices for Creative Non-Violence. He also networked with student groups, such as Students for Justice in Palestine and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, that were invested in the issue. His petition amassed over 700 signatures, and this ongoing struggle was prominently featured in many articles in the student newspaper. O’Brien next organized a press conference on campus, which was featured on local television news channels and written about in newspaper articles in the Chicago metropolitan area.

However, even though there was a high level of media visibility and protests involving faculty, staff and students, ultimately, the President of the university announced that the school would not be taking any actions against the university official. In the short run, the campaign had not dislodged this official, but a few years later, both the university President and the official that had been the focus of these protests left the university. Although the protests and the media attention might not have been a direct cause of both officials departing, they contributed to concerns that many university employees had regarding their performance.

Following graduating from college, O’Brien continued to invest himself in the torture/human rights issue affecting psychology, such as organizing a symposium addressing the issue at a national psychology convention. As in Case Study 17.1, both activists had to stick with the torture issue for a long time in order to see meaningful change occur in the profession of psychology.

The work of Community Psychology does not support hierarchical social and political change. Rather it is non-hierarchical, working from the bottom up with grassroots sources in the community. The voices of the people are the main data that are used. Praxis possesses an improvisational quality, and it is experimentation at its best—as there are many advantages to this approach when working with the community to advocate and engage in social change.

Community psychologists work with community members to mutually educate each other in order to reach more complete understandings of the issues they are facing, and the nuanced impact of these issues. As activists, community psychologists are facilitators, a part of the process, and are intentional and respectful. When community psychologists analyze systems, they use skill and an ecological lens (as pointed out in the first chapter, Jason et al., 2019), combined with respect for the people they work with. As Coalition for an Ethical Psychology member Roy Eidelson advises, aim to call “…attention to daily injustices, whether that’s working hard for less than a living wage or facing discrimination in housing, education, or law enforcement,” as a first step in challenging and changing dehumanizing structures (2018, p. 203).

Community psychologists, whether they are practitioners or scholarly activists, try to untangle the blocking points and hurdles to social change. Often, the job is to find the paradoxes and tension points, and to help show the world the abuses, just as was done by the leading activists of the past. By using honesty, truth, and the strategies outlined in this chapter, you and your community partners can begin to advocate for long-term change, and bring about a more equitable distribution of resources for a better world.

Critical Thought Questions

• What social or political changes do you want to be achieved in the world? Can you think of a praxis, a process, and put it in a logic model, that could best help you as you engage in activism?
• Can you think of an “alternative setting,” in your own life? A group of people, your tribe, who share a set of values with you, or want to see the same injustice righted? Can you think of ways that you could collaboratively work with them to bring about change?
• Think about some of the tools and skills that were mentioned as necessary to successfully bring about social and political change, or second-order change, through activism. Did you identify with any of these tools, have you used any of them in your own life, and how could you use them as an agent of social change?
• The authors argued that the ends never justify the means. Do you agree with this statement? Reflect on why or why not.
• Do you see yourself, your identity and reality, as being more or less in the oppressed or the oppressor group? Or some combination of both? How can we think about Freire’s categories as less about the oppressor and oppressed, and more about intersecting identities that still recognize asymmetries of power?

Take the Chapter 17 Quiz

View the Chapter 17 Lectures Slides

____________________________________________________________________

Anonymous. (1982). Bobby E. Wright. Journal of Black Psychology , 9 (1), iii-vi.

Eidelson, R. (2018).  Political mind games: How the 1% manipulate our understanding of what’s happening, what’s right, and what’s possible (1st ed.). Green Hall Books.

Freire, P. (2007). Pedagogy of the oppressed . Continuum.

Gandhi, M. K. (2001). Non-violent resistance (satyagraha) . Dover.

Jackman, T. (2019, February 23). ‘From students in high school all the way to the president’s desk.’ How a government class fought for the release of unsolved FBI civil rights case files. https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2019/02/23/students-high-school-all-way-presidents-desk-how-government-class-fought-release-unsolved-fbi-civil-rights-case-files/?utm_term=.f7d295ead2dc

Jason, L. A. (2013). Principles of social change . Oxford University Press.

Jason, L. A., Glantsman, O., O’Brien, J. F., & Ramian, K. N. (2019). Introduction to the field of Community Psychology. In Jason, L. A., Glantsman, O., O’Brien, J. F., & Ramian, K. N. (Eds.), Introduction to Community Psychology: Becoming an agent of change .  https://press.rebus.community/introductiontocommunitypsychology/chapter/intro-to-community-psychology/

Lorde, A. (2007). The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. In A. Lorde (Ed.), Sister outsider: Essays and speeches (pp. 110- 114). Crossing Press.

Olson, B. D., Viola, J., & Fromm-Reed, S. (2011). A temporal model of community organizing and direct action. Peace Review , 23 , 52-60. https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2011.548253

Rappaport, J. (1987). Terms of empowerment/exemplars of prevention: Toward a theory for community psychology.  Journal of Community Psychology ,  15 (2), 121-48.

Rappaport, J. (1981). In praise of paradox: A social policy of empowerment over prevention.  American Journal of Community Psychology ,  9 (1), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00896357

Sarason, S. B. (2000). Barometers of community change: Personal reflections. In J. Rappaport & E. Seidman (Eds.), Handbook of community p sy cholog y (pp. 919-929). Kluwer / Plenum.

United Nations. (2006, December 13). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/crpd/pages/conventionrightspersonswithdisabilities.aspx

Wilson, A. (1998).  Blueprint for black power: A moral, political, and economic imperative for the twenty-first century (1st ed.). Afrikan World InfoSystems.

Engaging in actions in a collaborative way with other psychologists, professionals in other disciplines, community members, organizations, and local government.

Research that involves an exchange of resources and ideas between researchers and the community members as a way of understanding that is guided by community needs, also known as "participatory action research."

In Community Psychology terms, activism is any action taken in an effort to bring about second-order change to address an injustice in society.

The process of gaining power emerging at the individual, organizational, community, and societal levels, which are affected by peoples' previous experiences, skills, actions, and context.

Systemic violence or oppression perpetrated by those who have power and influence in society toward those who are disadvantaged by society.

Also known as power structures; structures created in society that benefit the oppressor class in the form of institutions, policies, influence, and other societal constructs.

Involves the fair distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges that provide equal opportunities for education, healthcare, work, and housing.

Oppression can be described as the collusion of dehumanization and exploitation.

The group of individuals who have the power, influence, and power structures in place that further their goals while taking away the rights, needs, and resources of others.

Involves redefining the targets of prejudice and violence by making them seem less human (that is, less civilized or less sentient) than other people.

The group of individuals who do not benefit from the power structures in society and lack basic resources, rights, treatment, and opportunity in society.

The belief that the actions of the group can be successful in creating change.

Addressing the needs of a population, such as adequate health care or racial, economic, social, and educational justice.

Addressing the rights of a population, such as legal, political, and social justice.

Empowerment as an iterative process that will ultimately increases the number of opportunities for people to control their own lives.

A seemingly contradictory set of ideas that are intertwined, and must often be embraced when enacting social change.

A repetitive process of turning a theory, lesson, or skill into an actualized action.

To  deprive  of a  franchise , of a legal right, or of some privilege or immunity especially; to deprive of the right to vote.

An examination of one’s own true motivations, flaws, virtues, and willingness to sacrifice when engaging in activism.

Advocacy involves active promotion of a cause or principle involving actions that lead to a selected goal.

One seeing the opposition on an issue as connected to one's self through a common humanity. An empathic connection based on the universality of the human experience, which can reduce misunderstanding and hate.

Progress that occurs when breaking down a goal into manageable parts.

Across time.

A novel, new community of people that are allowed to live freely and pursue what matters on the individual and group levels.

Focusing on the commitment to the long-term goal of a campaign by planning for adjustments, adaptations, collaboration, and unexpected barriers in the activism process.

A hypothesized description of the process, step by step, of how a prevention or promotion intervention should work.

Liberating education between psychologists and community members accomplished through a cycle of open dialogue, dissemination, dialogue, repeat.

A set of organizations, institutions and community agents that cooperate to improve the living conditions of the community.

Individuals at the ground level of a community group or an organization are brought into key roles in intervention design and planning.

Introduction to Community Psychology Copyright © 2019 by Brad D. Olson; Jack F. O'Brien; and Ericka D. Mingo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Surinder Jaswal, Melody Kshetrimayum, Social Work and the Changing Context: Engagement in Policymaking, The British Journal of Social Work , Volume 50, Issue 8, December 2020, Pages 2253–2260, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcaa234

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How Social and Political Forces Might Affect Our Identity

In the1980’s, psychological theories about how peoples identities were formed began to change quite radically. Before that the importance of relationships between individuals, families and society did not play such a major role. But by introducing the family into the equation, as a social bridge between children and their societies, these relationships took on a new importance. 

Relational models of psychotherapy created new inroads for the improvement of mental health and language - being the medium through which relationships developed - likewise gained greater importance. Distinctions between social psychology and personal psychology grew ever more blurry with the dawning realisation that in a sense they were two sides of the same face. 

For this reason our politics and the ideas it contained were taken more seriously and thought about in new ways, particularly in how this shapes our unconscious life. A new generation of pioneering therapists, people like Jaques Lacan for example, went as far as to say that, ‘’…politics is occupying, contaminating even, the unconscious itself…’’ 

The relational view is basically that our sense of identity depends on who we are with. In one social group we might behave one way, whilst in another we might behave completely differently. Our social groups invite us to think about this; that because we’re all doing this with each other and all the time that we all play many parts depending on the needs of who we are with. We do this, says the relational view, not just because we thrive on affection with others but at a much deeper level; that actually good relationships are the recipe for good emotional health. 

The questions I am asking in this post are   what happens to our sense of emotional health when the relationship itself no longer feels real?  The other question  is what do we do then?  for these relationships are vital to us .   I am saying that this is going as the result of the way our politics, specifically capitalism, is shaping our expectations of each other. Through this our sense of completeness (of feeling real) is being wedded to the incorporation of things we own or possess, and that this is a problem for us if we wish to stay emotionally well. 

Erich Fromm, a world renowned social thinker and therapist, himself felt that the reason for this lack of feeling real in modern relationships was that “Through the rather cunning manipulation of desire, the discourse [language] of capitalism..by reducing it [desire] to demand,… creates the illusion that, … it is able to provide the complement of being that he or she is lacking by transforming the subject’s lack of being into a lack of having.” 

As therapists we might return to the infant phase of life to understand the origin of this created illusion. At a certain age all infants take into their mouths the things that they want, that they desire. This is their way of possessing things, of controlling them. Later they realise they cannot posses all things physically; they can however in magical or symbolic ways. Father’s prohibitions for example are taken in by the child symbolically, later forming a developing conscience. This spreads to all authorities and institutions in the same way.

This basic attitude ‘’of swallowing the whole world,” says Fromm, is one formed in childhood and as we grow naturally shapes our social characters. I return to Erich Fromm to comment on this possessive style of social character, one that in modern life we might call patriarchal.

“Perhaps the greatest enjoyment [in a patriarchal society] is not so much in owning material things but in owning living beings….over whom he can have absolute power…in his relationship to his wife, his children, his animals, over whom he can feel he is absolute master.” Fromm is not just saying that what is considered normal in society has been refashioned by capitalistic ideas but that the basic attitude of childhood possessiveness that underpins it is more appropriate to an earlier phase of life; that of childhood. This is a simple definition of what pathological means, an extreme example of an otherwise normal behaviour. This attitude now includes friends, lovers, even one’s own identity can be felt as an object, a product to sell; as something that is owned. This creates the sense of lack, the loss of feeling real, that I am talking about. One that, or so we believe, can only be filled by ‘products thrown on the market’, as the dominant political ideology is gradually taken in.

It is a pattern that, like any other, is encountered in clinical work, reaching back through generations. Although families may carry the political attitudes of not just their own generation but their antecedents we might agree that what is restricted in each case is “…the free, spontaneous expression of the infant’s, the child’s, the adolescent’s and finally the adult’s will.” 

Of course it goes without saying that in order to do this the child’s resistance must be overcome. This is because much of the force needed bends the child in directions that are ‘detrimental to [their] growth. It follows then that society, through its families has to solve a difficult problem. “How to break a person’s will without his being aware of it”

One answer is through the transformation of their desire from ‘an expression of being [to one of] possessiveness’ as Fromm said earlier. What this transformation also achieves is the gradual eroding of our social bonds and this is felt as yet a further lack as our sense of feeling real with each other is diminished. It’s an individualistic orientation and one that I suggest results in an unempathetic and erotically sterile relation to the world. A world that for many of us, once felt rich with relationships has now become a world where we find ourselves alone.

Whatever view we hold as therapists as to how neurotic symptoms form, one thing we can largely agree on is that “The predominant orientation occurs in the period before the achievement of full maturity…is pathological if it remains permanent”, that possessive orientations originate in childhood and in adult life are an expression of attitudes that have outlived their usefulness. In other words, “The consumer [has become] the eternal suckling crying for the bottle”, creating of course neurotic illness in both individuals and society as a whole.

For Jaques Lacan “one can be guilty of only one thing….that of having given ground relative to one’s desire”. Thinking about this desiring nature we can refer back to Fromm’s simply stated “the free, spontaneous expression of the… will” as a potential clue as to what is missing and the answer of course is free will and desire, whether our children’s or our own.

Here I am saying that this freedom is a freedom   from   a possessive orientation and a freedom   to   express desire. The possessive orientation in adult life denies this, objectifying both the other and one’s self. This provokes a reaction for “The tendency to grow in terms of their own nature is common to all living beings….we resist any attempt to prevent our growing in the ways determined by our structure.” Whether this resistance is passive, aggressive, conscious or unconscious the point is that it is provoked in response to being used, to “being bent in ways that are contrary to our given structure.”

As therapists we are deeply involved with our clients in this process of ‘being bent’ hearing or sensing their unspoken desires underneath, buried in the heart of their symptoms. For each one isn’t it this unheard desire to be free that stares out at us through the bars of their plight, their symptom. Isn’t it the capacity to be free that ultimately provides the remedial back to emotional health? I would argue that it is.

Culturally, in a similar way, disenfranchised groups are likewise feeling provoked by their own need for freedom. The freedom to not be objectified, to grow as they wish to. Their symptoms too might have been partially misunderstood for now, however expressed, they become symbolic of the entirely sane voice of protest, of rebellion against an objectifying discourse. One that has failed us in our need to sustain authentic relationships with each other and through this to stay healthy. 

One of the simple ways that we see this today is in our culture’s attitudes toward mental health. Stigmatisation, under-funding, unfair measures taken toward minority groups, many of whom are seriously ill. Looked at this way their rebellion can be seen as a sign of health and in this one can see great hope for symptoms whether personal or cultural. They become expressions of a conflict between these possessive cultural ideals and the efforts of the psyche to communicate its need to be real, to grow according to its nature. In other words the symptom is the sign that something is wrong and has to come before it can be put right. The symptom is forward-looking in this, for it initiates a process that outgrows the cultures possessive attitude, one that belongs to infancy. To stigmatise such a desire to ‘grow up’ is simply ridiculous. As James Hillman puts it, “What was once a symptom is now a figure with whom I can talk.”

I have attempted to put across the idea that, unpleasant though they can be, our symptoms are necessary to us and must come first, pointing the way out of our dilemma back to emotional health. One could even think of the journey in-between as the growing pains that must come before emotional wellbeing is found again. This as an attitude of being with people and not in possession or ownership of them. This to me is their meaning. If we can trust this they lead us ultimately toward a desired maturity both for our society and for ourselves.

Further reading

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Why are Heroes Bad

This essay about heroes who challenge and change systems examines individuals who have stood against entrenched societal norms to advocate for justice and transformation. It highlights the roles of Martin Luther King Jr. in the American civil rights movement, Nelson Mandela in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, and Rachel Carson in the environmental movement. These figures exemplify the characteristics of moral conviction, courage against formidable opposition, and the ability to inspire and mobilize for change. By detailing their significant contributions and the broader impacts of their actions, the essay underscores how individual agency can confront powerful institutions and lead to substantial societal shifts. It also emphasizes the importance of these change-makers as enduring inspirations for contemporary movements tackling issues like climate change, social inequality, and political repression.

How it works

Throughout history, societies have witnessed the emergence of individuals who have stood as beacons of change, challenging entrenched systems and advocating for transformative shifts in cultural, political, and social norms. These heroes, often motivated by visions of justice and equity, have played pivotal roles in disrupting status quos and effecting significant reforms. Their stories highlight not only the power of individual agency but also the broader implications of resisting and reshaping entrenched systems.

One of the most iconic figures in this arena is Martin Luther King Jr.

, who became the symbolic leader of the American civil rights movement. King advocated for nonviolent protest against the systemic racial discrimination prevalent in the United States. His leadership during the Montgomery Bus Boycott and his instrumental role in the March on Washington, where he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, are seminal moments in American history. These actions did not just challenge the immediate injustices of his time; they stirred a national and international awakening about civil rights and the need for change, setting the stage for major legislative reforms like the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In a different context, Nelson Mandela’s fight against apartheid in South Africa represents another profound example of challenging a deeply rooted system. Mandela’s approach combined both overt political engagement and profound personal sacrifice. His 27 years in prison became a powerful symbol of resistance against racial segregation and oppression. Upon his release, his election as the first black president of South Africa marked a monumental shift towards racial reconciliation and democratic governance in a country steeped in institutionalized racial discrimination.

Furthermore, the environmental movement has seen figures like Rachel Carson, who is often credited with launching the global environmental movement with her 1962 book, “Silent Spring.” Her meticulous documentation of the detrimental effects of pesticides on the environment challenged the practices of agricultural industries and catalyzed a movement that would eventually lead to significant environmental protection laws. Carson’s work demonstrated how challenging scientific and corporate systems can lead to broad legislative and cultural changes in environmental policy.

These heroes for change share common traits that include profound moral conviction, the courage to face formidable opposition, and the ability to inspire and mobilize others. Their actions remind us that change often requires confronting uncomfortable truths and challenging powerful institutions that may be resistant to change. Moreover, these leaders illustrate that significant societal shifts often begin with the efforts of individuals who are willing to stand against the prevailing systems of their times.

Their legacies teach us about the efficacy of resilience and tenacity in the face of systemic challenges. Whether through peaceful protests, writings that challenge conventional wisdom, or sheer indomitable will, these figures have demonstrated that individuals have the power to initiate change. Their stories are not just historical footnotes but are continuing inspirations for modern movements addressing issues like climate change, social inequality, and political repression.

In conclusion, heroes who challenge systems show us that the arc of moral and social universes do bend toward justice, but often it is their hands that have dared to push it. By examining the lives and actions of these change-makers, we not only gain insights into the mechanics of social change but also the enduring human spirit’s capacity to advocate for a better world. As we face modern challenges, the stories of these individuals underscore the potential impact of dedicated activism and moral courage in continuing to shape a just society.

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