Achieving Change

There are essentially two ways of effecting change on a large scale, and these are top-down and bottom-up actions. Top-down is the traditional way people think change occurs, which is where the government says, "Hey, you silly people, start doing things this way." This works fine in dictatorships, or for example feudal Japan, where the Shogun stopped problems of deforestation by placing strict controls on lumber cutting. In democracies, the government has no right to decree anything other than the will of the people. It should not, and generally cannot, tell the people to start doing something a different way. Activists often forget this when they think, "Oh, we just have to convince the government to do it and then that's that." The other problem with this kind of change is that corporations know that convincing a few politicians is easier than convincing the whole population through mass propaganda, so getting anti-corporate legislation through government is quite difficult.

The other type of change is bottom-up, and this is a lot harder to achieve but is ultimately the superior form, which involves communities banding together to make decisions for themselves. This is change that is enacted by individuals, and it ranges from a town deciding to act against development near the local natural reserve to entire cities of people rising up to protest social injustice (like the civil rights movement, or the privatization of water in Cochabamba, Bolivia.) This requires effort from large numbers of people, which is why, in comparison with forming a special interest lobbying group, this type of change is difficult, but it's ultimately far more effective than any government decree. (Unless this government is authoritarian, in which case it's arguable which is more effective.)

The purpose of activism is to engage enough people to convince the public to act against the problem, and thus motivate the government to take action on our behalf. Bottom-up change is all well and good, but it's hard to motivate an entire nation to change, and only the government had authority over all areas of the nation (or province, in the case of local governments.) The most effective way of achieving change is bottom-up actions leading to top-down policies. Unless we make the sacrifices and take the steps toward confronting a problem, however, the government will not magically step in and solve the problem. Change starts with the individual.