Concrete Action for System Change
Let's assume you are motivated and eager to make a contribution to much needed system change (1) in order to build a sustainable and just post-capitalist world, but you wonder where on earth to even begin. Welcome to the club! Perhaps you made it through my first blog post Cognitive Dissonance and Opportunities for System Change and you can now recognize fake solutions and system traps, as well as opportunities and leverage points for system change. However, it's rather easy to say that we need to change the goal of our capitalist system from GDP growth to sustainable well-being, that we need progressive income taxes, that we need to put limits on resource extraction, and that we need to punish pollution of the environment, but what can you and I actually do to help make that happen?
In this blog post, I will discuss various categories and examples of jobs and activities you could engage in for working towards system change, and explore the associated opportunities and limitations. Of course it depends on your background, qualifications, skills, personality, and current home/ work/ income situation as to what options are accessible and suitable for you individually. At the same time, while it's good to be realistic, it also requires a lot of courage, creativity, and persistance to open up new pathways for yourself. Committing to system change is not for people who prefer the path of least resistance. I mentioned before that fighting for system change involves tough battles, but the degree of toughness will depend on which approach you choose for yourself to engage in. Certainly there are low-key ways to contribute to system change and they will also be discussed below, but they will also have a relatively low impact.
More importantly, it's crucial to remain reflective and to determine whether whatever you are doing is actually contributing to system change, or you have been redirected by systemic forces and are now putting your valuable time and energy into fake solutions. It could well be that doing nothing at all is ultimately better than doing something misguided. It is a strange and lazy habit many people have to be overly optimistic about well-intended initiatives and to assume that they are valuable regardless of the actual effects. For example, in my view, promoting the sale of electric cars does not convincingly contribute to system change, since it involves a new type of consumerism that will require a whole new scramble for resources, particularly the destructive mining of minerals. While electric cars are cleaner and ultimately should replace fossil fuel cars, policies aiming to achieve this in the very near future will lead to a boost of production and sales of new cars while discarding the old ones that could still be used for many years. In the meantime, the number of cars per person also continues to rise, at least in the Netherlands. The question then is, how much are you really gaining, not just in terms of a reduction in CO2 emissions, but also taking into consideration extraction of materials and pollution more generally? So, what we really need more than anything is a drastic reduction in production, purchase, and use of cars in general. This can be achieved by a serious improvement of public transport networks, including accessibility and affordability, by prioritizing safe sidewalks and bike lanes for pedestrians and cyclists, and by promoting work-from-home constructions where possible.
Categories of Action
Before I get to the types of concrete action through which anyone could pursue a sustainable and just post-capitalist world, I want to begin by categorizing them in two ways that strongly determine the nature of the work and the challenges involved. First of all, I want to distinguish between efforts towards top-down system change through a focus on laws and policies and efforts towards bottom-up system change through a focus on education, democracy, and diversity. Secondly, I want to emphasize the differences between doing so through paid or through unpaid labor.
Focus on Laws and Policy (Top-Down)
System change generally requires changing laws and policies, nationally and internationally, to change flows of money and materials, including natural resources, products, and by-products. Changing laws and policies can be a very powerful tool. However, it is also incredibly challenging to get it done and get it done in the right way. If you want to contribute to this direct form of system change, you will need a lot of patience and persistence and you will likely face many disappointments. That said, it's crucial that we remain relentless in our pursuit and constantly work on the design of and the lobbying for alternatives to the status quo.
The first blog post already indicated a few examples of potential policy changes that would contribute to a more sustainable and just post-capitalist world. Of course, we will need to dive much deeper into the content of what exactly would be needed and I intend to do so in future blog posts. If you are impatient, I would recommend looking into the literature on degrowth where you will find many interesting proposals. As I have discussed previously, system change can be quite unpredictable and there are often long delays before effects become visible. So it's important to do thorough research and envision different scenarios before making particular policy changes so to avoid unpleasant surprises as much as possible.
The biggest obstacle, of course, is that there are many organizations, businesses, and people with a lot of power and money who benefit tremendously from the status quo. They are fighting tooth and nail to prevent system change. They do so by lobbing, misinformation campaigns, playing into gut emotions of the general public, and influencing the political landscape. As a consequence, proposed laws and policies with any serious transformative potential for the benefit of sustainability and social justice often find incredible resistance and become toned down and tweaked in the negotiation processes to please opposing parties in ways that undermine their essence and effectiveness. Thus, this process very much depends on the political wind that is blowing in a country at that particular moment and this also shows how incredibly important it is to combine top-down with bottom-up approaches through a focus on education, democracy, and diversity to facilitate this process.
Now, I want to acknowledge discussions about the problems of using authoritarian state structures and practices that have emerged and functioned in close symbiotic relationships with capitalism as tools for system change. It is certainly an important question to ask to what degree and in what ways it could even be possible to reach a sustainable and just post-capitalist world by working through the state and thereby reinforcing its power. Anarchists would argue that it's not. While it is not realistic that states could become abolished any time soon, I do think it's valuable to stay engaged with this question and reflect on possibilities to work on transforming both states and capitalism in such ways that they become new things altogether and work for the benefit of humanity and the planet instead of the greed of a small group of people.
Focus on Education, Democracy, and Diversity (Bottom-Up)
So in order to more easily achieve top-down system change through changes in laws and policies, we desperately need bottom-up approaches to system change by providing good quality education, strengthening democratic practices, and defending and embracing diversity. While it's of course possible and important to achieve top-down system change on these issues through solid laws and policies, I categorize them separately as bottom-up change because every person can relatively easily contribute in their personal and professional lives and it is actually crucial that this happens on a large scale. Having a well informed and diverse general public with solid critical thinking skills and access to the democratic tools that gives power to their voices will make a tremendous difference in transforming our capitalist system into something better.
I came up with this distinction while reading Meadows' book, Thinking in Systems, which I described in the first blog post. Most of the leverage points in her top-12 of places to interfere in a system would completely depend on changes in laws or policies, something that requires anyone to either work for the government or have a possibility to put pressure on the government. However, a few leverage points jumped out at me as having particular potential for bottom-up change, namely #8 balancing feedback loops, #6 information flows, and #4 self-organization, particularly through the strengthening of democracy, education, and diversity (2). I want to emphasize that these points are always under a lot of pressure and regularly outright under attack by groups aiming to gain control over populations, and it's never because they want to achieve wonderful things for humanity. This fact in itself confirms their importance.
When I use the word 'education', I mean both formal education through schools and informal education through exposure to all kinds of information sources, but particularly mainstream media and social media. Our formal education system has been infiltrated by capitalist interests and the primary aim is to prep children to become productive members of capitalist society. For many many children, the school system kills creativity, playfulness, joy, and the connection with nature. This is also where the development of critical thinking skills through experimentation and exposure is being nipped in the bud. Personally, I had to make my way all the way to a PhD program in anthropology in the US before I found institutional stimulation of critical thinking skills. Sadly, on top of poor quality of education, mainstream media and social media are making things much worse. The independence of the mainstream media is constantly under attack by corporate and political interests. All the while, our patience and focus to read a longer in-depth news article are being degraded by the addictiveness of social media fast food.
Our democratic rights are being eroded as well. Many people don't vote because they don't think it will make a difference. They often consider political parties as serving interests other than those of the citizens of the country. And when a new populist party emerges and makes a lot of noise, its politicians play into the hopes that something could finally change, that the established order will finally be shaken up. The media feeds off this process by pursuing and sometimes creating controversy and heated debates to attract viewers and attention. Sadly, those populist parties mostly just work to further undermine democracy, create division by demonizing a particular group of people, such as immigrants or LGBTQIA+ people, and using it as an excuse to start dismantling basic human rights. There is a lot more to say about this of course, but mostly we need many more people with various backgrounds to become politically engaged in all possible kinds of ways, and more generally we need engaged citizens who will organize and speak up in order to express shared concerns.
Human diversity needs to be defended and celebrated simply because any time is isn't, it's because a particular group of people is being demonized and becoming the target of increased aggression that can turn into horrific escalations. In addition, diversity has incredible value for resilience of humanity and any type of human organization. A child exposed to other children and teachers from different backgrounds in schools will learn from a young age that there are many ways of thinking and ways of doing things. It's really an amazing opportunity to learn social skills in dealing with difference, but also to make more informed decisions on how they themselves want to live their lives, which in turn could also lead to creative new ways of approaching societal problems. Diversity opens up a wild range of possibilities! Parents (and politicians) may not always be happy with this when they themselves cling to narrow worldviews that demonize difference and breed fear of the 'Other', and they want to transfer this to their children as well. So there remains a lot of opposition and, as mentioned above, divide-and-rule tactics are often used to distract people from other political decisions being made involving power and money.
Paid labor towards system change
For idealistic individuals, it is of course perfect if they don't have to sell their souls for employment, but instead can find a job where they can pursue system change professionally. It's a 2-in-1 deal! You will have an income to survive and will also be able to spend a significant portion of your time and energy on the cause. At the same time, it generally means you are working inside a certain organizational structure, such as the government or a non-profit organization, which means that you will have to align yourself with the associated goals and practices. When you recognize how deeply our societies are organized by capitalism, you also realize how many organizations are misguided and redirected in the solutions they pursue for societal problems, so there is always the danger that you get misguided and redirected as well. It very much depends on the kind of organization you manage to land a job with as to how restricted or free you will be to pursue critical reflection and propose creative alternatives. Sadly, jobs with a lot such freedom are quite rare.
Unpaid labor towards system change
In the current global political climate, organizations committed to system change are generally heavily underfunded. As a result, efforts towards system change will largely need to come from volunteers, unpaid labor driven by a desire to make a difference. As many people struggle to even get by, the cost of living is rising everywhere, often little time and energy remains for other things. There is a certain privilege in being able to spare time for larger social causes, although it's also good to recognize that often those people who have themselves experienced hardship are the ones most willing to give whatever they can to help others. And social movements tend to arise when people are driven into a corner so much that they become mobilized out of sheer desperation, that they have nothing much left to lose. The cost of contributing to system change, especially through unpaid labor, can be incredibly high. Reactive action out of desperation can be powerful but may not be the most strategic and tends to lack a long-term vision. So, in order to be more proactive, finding funding for system change work is incredibly important. Job creation or even opportunities for allowances or reimbursements will allow more people to participate and be more comfortable doing so.
Types of Action
Let's get a bit more specific in checking out concrete types of actions you could engage in, recognizing the role of the categorizations discussed above. Of course, as I mentioned, it will depend on your personal situation as to what is accessible and suitable for you. I mention examples I can think of, but it's not intended as an exhaustive list of professions and activities and there are probably some blind spots. If you have other ideas, please feel free to share them through the comments section.
Paid labor towards top-down system change
I have to admit, as I was outlining this blog post, I considered jobs where you can have some influence over laws and policies as the jobs with the most potential for impact. However, thinking it all through, I also realized how much we need bottom-up change before we have a chance at achieving the type and level of top-down change we are looking for. We will need much broader and stronger societal support than currently exists. Having a job where you are close to decision-making processes on laws and policies can be incredibly frustrating when the ruling political parties are not at all pursuing system change, but rather about maintaining or strengthening the established order. For example, working as a policy advisor in the Ministry of Economics and Climate, you might be asked to help design policy to facilitate the production of nuclear energy or CO2 storage, which you consider to be fake solutions to the climate crisis. However, if you are good at negotiating complex political situations while maintaining your own integrity, and you are able to recognize opportunities to limit the negative impact of such policies, to limit the damage that will be done to people and the environment, this could still be an interesting job (assuming you can get yourself hired).
I would like to differentiate between government and non-government jobs. If you work for a governmental organization, you are more on the 'inside' and closer to where the decisions are actually being made. This includes jobs working for ministries, for regional or local government organizations, or for certain intergovernmental or supranational organizations like the EU. If you work for an NGO, you are generally advising and possibly pressuring more from the outside. There are of course many different kinds of NGOs, but NGO jobs that involve opportunities for influencing laws and policies would focus on research and writing reports to evaluate and advise, and on lobbying government for particular changes. Established NGOs can have strong voices. Although governments can and often do ignore them, they definitely inform and influence political debates and negotiations. You could of course also decide to start your own NGO to cover issues or approaches not quite covered by existing organizations, but available funding is scarce, so establishing reliable sources of income can be a major hurdle.
Now, if you work for a political party, for example as a policy advisor or as an elected politician, your position probably shifts a bit between inside and outside, of course also depending whether that party is part of the government or opposition.
Unpaid labor towards top-down change
I suppose that most, if not all, people who provide unpaid labor to work towards changes in laws and policies, would be called activists. Their activism could for example include demonstrations demanding more government action to halt climate change, to put an end to new fossil fuel projects, to stop discrimination by certain organizations, such as the police, to refrain from supporting a war, etc. Activists often work together with NGOs to put pressure on the government to make particular decisions. Many people are uncomfortable to call themselves an activist and to join demonstrations until it concerns an issue that directly affects them, or when a movement becomes larger and people from their own social circle become involved. There are currently lots of social movements worldwide that are largely based on unpaid activists (however much right-wing internet trolls like to claim activists get paid a few hundred euros or dollars to participate - I wish it was true). The movement that is currenly the strongest and largest is of course the climate movement. However, many activists recognize that various issues are connected in that they all result from capitalist processes, so solidarity between movements such as the climate movement, Black Lives Matter movement, labor movements, etc., can make all of them stronger and unite in bigger common goals.
The most obvious way to contribute to activism is by joining demonstrations. The truth though is that demonstrations are generally not very effective, both in terms of getting news coverage and a serious response from governments. This is why movements will engage in other tactics, particularly civil disobedience. Climate activists regularly use the tactic of nonviolent civil disobedience in order to raise attention for the cause. This could mean blocking roads, occupying the lobbies of government organizations and polluting businesses, climbing a bridge to drop a huge banner, or throwing soup at a painting in a museum. There are of course debates on whether or when actions that may damage property could be considered violent and/or acceptable. Some people are strictly clinging to the promise of nonviolence, while others are more open for damaging property. After all, how violent is blowing up a pipeline when you consider the consequences of the climate crisis, which is already causing immense suffering and hundreds of thousands of deaths? Of course, it's up to everyone individually to decide how they want to support the movement and how far they would go in terms of civil disobedience and the risk of arrest and prison sentence.
Laws that determine what is considered acceptable part of democratic right for demonstration vary wildly between countries, such that in some cases you could face prison sentence for just joining a demonstration or holding a sign while standing on a city square. Various countries are taking steps to strengthen their laws specifically as an effort to crackdown on climate protests, for example the UK. It is a reminder that laws are not inherently good or right and may actually aim to stifle opposition from society against things that earn powerful people a lot of money at the expense of society at large. Breaking such laws could be a courageous act of resistance for the greater good rather than a crime that should be punished. People living in countries with freedom and opportunity to express their concerns about certain issues affecting humanity and/or the environment should do so also in solidarity with those living in countries where this is more restricted, where the risk is higher. Violence against activists may not always be organized through the state and executed by police. Activists who are on the frontlines of opposition against extractive industries often face tremendous risks far beyond arrest and imprisonment. According to research by the NGO Global Witness, more than 1700 environmental and land-defense activists were murdered in the last decade, and around 40% of these murders concerned indigenous people. So anything that can be done to support such activists and to hold industries and governments accountable for conflicts over land and resources could help save lives.
If you feel uncomfortable engaging in civil disobedience or even joining demonstrations, but you still support the movement more broadly, there are many other things you could do to help behind the scenes in terms of logistics, writing texts, cooking food, facilitating meetings, and so on. As activists invest their free time into the movement, alongside their education, jobs, and/or any other commitments in life, they can easily get burnt out. So any extra pair of hands can relieve some of the work pressure for others and there are always ways to find tasks that suit your personality and skills. Being part of a movement can help you feel more connected with other people concerned about the state of the world and eager to do something, and thereby be a bit of a cure against defeatism and climate depression (the real cure of course if the abolishment of capitalism...).
If you want to support activism but not engage personally, for example if you are unable to be physically present at events, you could consider donating money, supporting the movement vocally with family and friends or on social media, and/or signing petitions. If you want to remain strictly anonymous, donating money is always a helpful and welcome way to provide support.
Paid labor towards bottom-up system change
There are many jobs imagineable where you could make a contribution to bottom-up system change. However they are not always quite so obvious since the work may be somewhat diffuse and seems to have a more indirect impact than top-down change. Someone working as a teacher and strenghtening students' critical thinking skills or appreciation for diversity is not likely to describe this as making a contribution to system change. However, it is incredibly significant. There is a reason why the educational system is a constant focus of ideological struggle to the extent that books are being banned and teachers are being threatened or fired for covering things like colonial crimes and the history of racism or gender and sexual diversity. Being a teacher committed to equality and social justice can be quite scary and dangerous in some circumstances. This is exactly the reason why such teachers are much needed and should be supported in any way possible.
Apart from teaching, at all levels of education, other bottom-up jobs would include journalism and research, as ways to inform the general public. You may specifically engage in an investigative form of journalism to expose unethical practices by businesses or government organizations, which is a very powerful way of holding these organizations accountable and also making sure that people are aware of malpractices that might affect or concern them. Many governmental and non-governmental organizations have an informative and educational function as well. Of course, not all types of information production and sharing are equally helpful. Especially if it's meant to indoctrinate or manipulate it is obviously not contributing to the kind of system change we are looking for. Shedding light on important information otherwise hidden or challenging audiences to think in new ways are valuable approaches to contribute to bottom-up system change. In addition to textual communication, strong visuals can have tremendous impact, so people working as illustrators, photographers, videographers, and artists more generally can play important roles here.
Paid jobs focusing on the strengthening of democracy can generally be found in the NGO world. Some NGOs organize demonstrations about certain issues, look for human right violations by governments, or start court cases against the government or specific companies for not complying with legislation to protect citizens and the environment. These are great ways to mobilize people and to exercise basic rights, thereby train the system to keep respecting these rights. From this comes that lawyers can make crucial contributions as well. If I could go back to when I was 18, I would love to study environmental law instead of biology and make it my career to go after big bad corporations polluting the environment. Of course, the reality is not quite as glamorous as in the movies, just check out the story of Steven Donziger, and the process surely is incredibly tedious, lenghty, and exhausting. That said, court is becoming an increasingly important site where people assert their rights to a clean, safe, and healthy environment for them and their children. Governments and companies are being taken to court over the climate crisis all over the world, which is a powerful development. Apart from NGOs and lawyers, labor unions are also incredibly important to defend workers' rights, and there are increasing calls for better connecting labor and climate movements in order to align their goals. As polluting industries are being challenged by the climate movement, workers for those industries fear for their jobs, even though they may be just as concerned about the climate crisis as the activists. And the activists of course also wants these workers to still be able to have an income if their jobs were to disappear.
If you would like to find a paid job that specifically focuses on diversity, you would probably look for openings with NGOs, such as organizations working to combat discrimination. Still, there are many jobs where a focus on diversity can be incorporated, for example when you work in human resources. Now, in addition to human diversity, diversity in ways of organizing and doing things is also important here, particularly through the development of new approaches to production, consumption, and sharing, but also to decision-making, to caring, and to teaching in a post-capitalist society. I want to specifically mention social entrepreneurship, where businesses aim to make a positive social impact rather than to pursue profits. Such a positive social impact could be anything from collaborative forms of farming to initiatives to improve care for elderly or combat loneliness. In my blog post Frustrated Idealisms, towards the end, I have listed various barriers to small social entrepreneurship, which definitely complicate their success. In the end, depending on the income that can be generated, this might turn out to be a very poorly paid or insecure type of labor. At the same time, social enterprises can be experimental, alternative forms of businesses that may challenge capitalist principles, and even if they are unable to survive in the long-term in the current capitalist landscape, they could become models with potential for broader application once the right conditions are created.
While the jobs I have mentioned certainly all exist, some of them can be quite rare and incredibly competitive. NGOs advertising for job openings can easily receive hundreds of applications and often do. NGOs, labor unions, and even schools often heavily rely on volunteers. Tapping into new sources of funding is essential. So, if you love the pursuit of those €€€, you could become a much-needed fundraiser. And perhaps there are also other creative ways to envision through which to support the livelihoods of volunteers.
Unpaid labor towards bottom-up change
As for unpaid labor to strengthen education, democracy, and diversity, in addition to volunteering for an organization to work on similar issues and projects as I mentioned above, there are many things you can do in your personal lives as well. For example, I am definitely that annoying friend posting loads of news items on Facebook, particularly the kind that I know many of my friends of followers are not normally exposed to. I often bring up issues during conversations with family, friends, and colleagues, and I am known to be an activist. Of course, there is a fine line between being a little annoying and constantly harassing and lecturing people. There are also ways in which expressing an opinion on social media can make a difference beyond just informing friends. For example, I have seen posts on Twitter and LinkedIn where newspapers are tagged and shamed for fossil fuel advertisements, that are sometimes covered right next to news coverage about climate disasters. It both helps raise awareness among followers and put increasing pressure on the papers to stop taking advertisement money from the fossil fuel industry. It can be a tricky choice whether to keep your posts about these issues private or make them public and engage in public discussions, the latter of which could have more influence, but also expose you to criticism from work relations or to hateful comments by internet trolls.
With regard to strengthening democracy, I have already mentioned organizations organizing demonstrations, defending human rights, or starting court cases are training the system to respect basic human rights. As an activists you also contribute to this process. Any time you join a demonstration or an action, you are making use of the rights that we shouldn't take for granted. There are many other ways to do this, for example when you object to the cutting of trees in your neighborhood, when you write to political representatives to express your concern about things they might be voting for, or when you organize or sign a petition. It is helpful to keep using all the options we have available to express our concerns as citizens, not just as a way to get governments to make different decisions, but also to avoid that such options might quietly disappear. Vigilence for any sign that democratic rights are being eroded is crucial, as is any possible action to prevent it.
Finally, as for diversity, apart from volunteering for NGOs that work on protecting diversity and the rights of people to be different, you can of course speak out against discrimination whenever you encounter it in your own life. Also, focusing more on yourself, it is always helpful to work on your own internalized assumptions and prejudices and to check your privilege. As for diversity in terms of organizing and ways of doing things more broadly, there are many ways of experimenting with alternatives. I already mentioned social entrepreneurship, but there are also many initiatives that are completely volunteer-based. For example, Facebook groups or websites for giving away household items for free, for sharing equipment, for carpooling, or neighborhood boxes for swapping books or sharing nonperishable foods.
We could also think about subsistence farming or self-sufficient living, the creation of food forests, communal gardening, and living in ecovillages. Some of these may end up functioning more as a business model, for example by selling food, lodging, or knowledge through books and courses, and thus fall more in the category of paid labor through social entrepreneurship, where I already mentioned collaborative forms of farming as an example. However, there are also many ways in which people complement or replace income by producing their own food, sometimes individually and sometimes in collaborative organizations. There is a trend of people fed up with the capitalist rat-race who buy affordable land to live off-grid and/or self-sufficiently. They are basically turning to subsistence farming, something done by communities all over the world since the invention of agriculture roughly 12,000 years ago, but often without access to the same skills and local social networks. There is a reason why many old small farms are being abondoned and sold for cheap; it is a harsh life and without a cohesive community in a world that is largely organized by capitalist principles, it is incredibly difficult to maintain, especially through sickness and into old age. That said, people who newly turn to this lifestyle might bring a financial buffer with work-from-home jobs or savings that could last a lifetime in a situation where the cost of living is significantly lower than in a city apartment. I want to emphasize though that the pervasiveness of individualism tends to play through with many people starting initiatives as a couple or as a family. They soon discover that the work is too much and end up looking for volunteers to help out in exchange for a place to stay. While it can be an interesting arrangement for both parties, it also tends to create an unequal situation where one person is the owner of the land and another person adds value to this property through unpaid labor. So more collaborative set-ups like eco-villages probably form more transformative models that can include mutual care, creative decision-making processes, sharing knowledge and skills, and division of labor.
Some people might argue that building alternative types of societies could be a strategy to replace capitalism, but I strongly disagree. Building a small peaceful self-sufficient society somewhere does absolutely nothing to put an end to the devastating effects of capitalism, and such a society will sooner or later be affected as well. Many people who bought cheap land to live off-grid in southern Europe are already experiencing the effects of the climate crisis through the droughts, fires, and floods. So the initiatives are interesting in terms of models for alternative living, as long as they are combined with serious efforts to dismantle capitalism. I am not saying it isn't important though. Revolutions often fail to achieve system change because people have difficulties imagining alternative models for society, because people lack different types of networks, skills, and habits. While it is hard to imagine the entire world turning to the eco-village model, it could definitely inform new forms of social living.
Strategy & Funding
It's already quite obvious from the above that efforts towards system change are quite diffuse and unconnected with each other. There is no larger movement to bring them together and people often struggle for positive change in isolation or in small groups, and they may not always consciously do so. This also means that there is no particular strategy. Is this a problem? Not necessarily. As already mentioned, diversity brings strength in itself.
The danger, however, is that changes made may not have the desired effects for example unless other changes were made simultaneously. Of course, theoretically, it can be a wonderful exercise to imagine a whole new post-capitalist system that pursues a sustainable and egalitarian type of well-being for all people. It is not realistic however to simply replace one system with another - it would require either an extremely authoritarian state, which is already in direct conflict with the need for democracy, or else a very strong alignment of all people about the steps necessary. In addition, such system change is unlikely to work well if only one country achieves it. There is definitely a need for a broad global consensus. It seems we have to focus on the parts rather than the whole, with the hope that it will somehow all fall into place, kinda like an ecosystem falling into a new equilibrium.
That said, overarching narratives can definitely help. Neoliberal stories have become incredibly powerful in shaping the political landscape in the past decades, in creating more socio-economic inequality through privatization and a breakdown of social services, and in intensifying environmental destruction through extractivism. There is no reason why new stories with better goals couldn't become equally or more powerful for the benefit of the planet as a whole. The narrative of degrowth is already becoming more widespread and certainly has the potential of appealing to many different kinds of people worldwide. However, we are still along way from this narrative gaining serious political ground. Many left-wing political parties have themselves been drawn into the neoliberal narratives and have failed to provide a strong and convincing alternative, thus ending up being more reactive to political developments rather than proactive in moving our societies into a new direction. It is certainly not easy to shake deeply rooted capitalist assumptions about how society is supposed to work, but it is precisely what is needed to be able to achieve transformation. Courageous leaders who are bold enough to tell such stories could well reach people who currently feel abandoned by politics. There is apparently tremendous political fear to take this step. I wonder if any prominent politician has ever dared to state that capitalism needs to be abolished...
Apart from overarching narratives, it may also help to form stronger networks of connections so that people can feel part of a larger movement of movements, exchange information, make new alliances etc. I often think an online forum with some sort of a collaboratively created wikipedia for system change could be really interesting, but at the same time I also know that as long as it would need to rely on unpaid labor it would unlikely be really successful. A possibility could be to add a crowdfunding component where people from any part of the world could propose any sort of work towards system change and ask for financial support. There could be a central organization with funding to be distributed to such initiatives, for example through a voting system by members, and indivuals or organizations could also make direct financial contributions in response to particular proposals. It could be an interesting way to support work being done that is now largely unpaid and therefore restricted by limited time and energy. Finding paid employment in the field of system change is not available for everyone who is driven to contribute to it, even if they have the right qualifications, so something like this could provide an opportunity for such people to become involved. Of course it would require serious funding to even set up and then also to keep it running. The reality is that funding for non-profit work is very limited and need to come from governments, philanthropy, private donations, etc. While the wealthiest people and businesses in this world have plenty of resources to invest in armies of think tanks, lawyers, lobbyists, communication experts, and so on, the rest of us are scrambling to be able to form a serious opposition to their power. We desperately need to go beyond competing between ourselves for the scarce sources of funding available and find or create new sources in order stand a fighting chance (3).
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Endnotes
1: I want to emphasize then when I speak of system change, I mean system change towards a more sustainable and just post-capitalist world. The term 'system change' is generally used in this way, but of course there are other types of system change imagineable, even in the complete opposite direction. However, people who work to restrict democratic voting rights for particular groups of people, for example, often do so quietly and as much under the radar as possible, so they are unlikely to loudly proclaim it as a contribution to much-needed system change for the benefit of society.
2: Meadows also speaks about changing and transcending paradigms as #2 and #1 leverage points. I would argue that these possibilities for change could arise from education, but they are a bit elusive as something to explicitly pursue in themselves.
3: 22/8/2023 edit: I just wanted to add here that of course a lot of funding comes with conditions and these can quickly end up completely redirecting the goals and direction of a movement (just look at all the NGOs that have been corrupted with corporate funding). So it's crucial to stay focused on the goals and find sources of funding that are supportive of the agenda of system change.