Social Change

I am a social change agent.

At least, I strive to be one. The term was first introduced to me during my internship last year with One Sky, as their mission is to create emerging grounds for social change agents.

So what does this mean? My take on it - my boss would be able to explain it in much more detail - is that social change agents can't be created, so to speak. An organisation or group can, however, create an environment where someone's potential as a leader and social change agent, is fostered for growth.

I've been reflecting on this idea of social change the past few days while I've been bed-ridden with a stomach bug. While working in rural Northern BC and promoting things like energy efficiency and conservation, it's been a struggle for me to bring certain people out of an ego-centric perspective and into an ethno-centric one. It's no easy task, trust me.

From my experience, it's in the delivery of your own perspective that you can create "emergent grounds" for a transcending discussion. What I mean by this is that when one tends to preach, the reaction is to close down and defend your point of view. Let's face it, it's not as easy as changing someone's perspective on the world in one conversation. So, then, how does one affect social change?

I don't claim to have answers, which leaves me in a difficult position in this post. If I were to suggest anything, it would be through interaction. The biggest thing that hinders further change is the inability to hold multiple perspectives. This is a quality I strive to acquire because it allows an individual to detach itself from the ego, reaching broader pastures in terms of perspective.

How else can you work with, for example, loggers and miners? For that matter, how else can you work with anyone that holds a different opinion or perspective than you?

Having recently started writing again, I'm visibly rusty so let me collect my thoughts and continue this post in the near future.

Thanks for watching.

Response to Living La Vida Loca

Although it might sound like I'm reiterating Monsieur P's thoughts and opinions, my focus for this post is more precisely on the over-stimulation that not only today's youth are exposed to, but also anyone living near a television, ipod, blackberry, cell phone, laptop, and/or any combination of these gadgets.

I'll be the first to admith that certain gadgets are a necessity for me. After 2 weeks in Mali, my 4 year old iPod Mini completely shut down; it had done its fair share of laps around the track. That left me in West Africa with my very limited collection of music on my laptop.

The solution? Ask a co-worker from the UK to get me an iPod Classic before making his next trip to Bamako. Problem solved.

I'm going somewhere with this. The point is that there is a fine line between entertainment and necessity. My concern is primarily when necessity becomes a distraction.

For the life of me, I cannot single-task. My attention is all over the map at work and I need to be doing at least 2 or 3 things at the same time, albeit not as effectively as they would be done with 100% of my attention. This is something I grew up with, exposed to the internet from the ripe age of 13-14.

My thoughts are all over the map so I will end it here for now. Ironically enough, I've been listening to my iPod the whole time I spent writing this post.

Sigh.