Paul Weimer recently had this to say on Twitter: “Change doesn’t happen by meekly accepting things as they are. That’s a recipe for the continuation of the bullshit.”
How’s that for a truth bomb?
Change does not come in the wake of being nice. Change does not come from silence. Change does not come from a place of making everyone comfortable. Change is not nice, silent, or comfortable.
No, change is a fight against the inexorable pull of the status quo, against the weight of the way things have always been (even if they haven’t in fact always been this way), against apathy and ennui and not wanting to be bothered. Change calls thoughts and ideas, sometimes unexamined, often long-held, into question. Change awakens insecurities that we try to keep under the surface.
Change often comes with a certain amount of anger. Anger, because the process of standing against the tide is exhausting and anger provides energy. Anger, because change takes a long time and repeatedly standing up to ignorance and entitlement takes a certain toll. Anger, because sometimes our world is singularly lacking in empathy, and because listening is a hard-won skill that many people have not developed.
Change comes at a high personal cost. Change comes from speaking up, and speaking up comes with consequences: derision, derailment, defensiveness, death threats, rape threats, a loss of personal safety and security. Change involves delving into painful truths. Sometimes those painful truths show us things about ourselves and our society that we’d rather not see.
But change DOES come. When life looks particularly dark, I find this truth comforting: everything changes. Today ends, and tomorrow begins. The situation right now will not be the situation forever. Within a generation, the ideas of a society can shift. And in another generation, they can shift some more.
And I can educate myself and strive to be someone more than who I am today.
I can change too.
The Practical Free Spirit 
This dovetails well with an article I was reading about Andreesen suggesting that instead of people “following their passion” they should instead “do what contributes — follow the thing that provides the most value to others.” (http://www.businessinsider.com/andreessen-whatever-you-do-dont-follow-your-passion-2014-5#ixzz338UdO9S6)….but I must say I prefere your turn of phrase “the inexorable pull of the status quo”…the gravity of peerage, I guess. Either way – looking for things that are valuable to someone more than just yourself is what changes things. And it is hard work!
Reblogged this on Archaic Sugar and commented:
“Change does not come in the wake of being nice.” No. Great read here, simply..