The Change

I was recently having a discussion with my professor on social media about change. According to her the problem with us is that “We take on change as a catch word without clear conceptualisation. Hence it becomes a very attractive word to cut a discourse for intellectualism that is actually directionless and has no clue of what exactly does it imply.” She also said that while we are so fond of using words like “system” or “change” they derive from a theory or an ideology which most of us seem to have never understood. Both of these points are valid. Hence it got me into thinking. I am not a learned human, wouldn’t even count myself in the reader community of the globe.  I have no idea which philosopher said what about what. But still I’m driven by the need and the desire of change. I’d even cast a vote for someone who will promise me some change. And after I saw no change that I expected, while the claims of the big change echoed, I was left to think about what then actually changed? And there I think I realized that the kind of change that I wanted to see, was supposed to start with me. Starting with me thinking about how it was going to come into being, rather than just wanting an end product.

As I already mentioned that I know nothing about theories and philosophies of change, but I still think of it, desire it and even sometimes make it by taking out that garbage, the smell of which has got on everyone’s nerves but is too heavy for others to move, so I thought I’d write about my layman notion of change, system and the change in the system. I think “change” is easier to deal with because no matter what I write as my definition of this word, it will be different than the next person’s, who comes across it. Still I will start with “system”.

While Google defines it as “a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network; a complex whole” and “a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized scheme or method”, these are too flowered for me to understand. In my understanding, a system is a process or a processing body or the individuals networking in a processing body or the way those individuals work to get the process going. Also I believe there is more to the word.

A change in the system then would be a slight difference made, by replacing (or changing) an action or even an actor, in an ongoing system. If the entire system renews itself or is renewed somehow, it will not be a change in the system. Rather, it will be a system changed. And while this might sound confusing to highly intellectual people, this is simple and understandable for a layman like myself.

An illustration of me being a component of an ongoing system might help those who are still confused. For example if I am a student of a college where there is a tradition of teachers not coming to the class on time, and I want it changed, I can daydream about the authorities getting raged because my personal little self is in trouble but this might never really happen unless I go and report. Now that still doesn’t mean the authorities will take a notice but for someone who tries after me would surely know one of the many ways that wouldn’t work, which to me is still a contribution to the desire of the long term change of teachers coming to the class in time.  Here the authorities, the staff, the students are all part of a system, including the processes like hiring the teachers, maintenance of discipline, exams, results and other such things. Then my demand of teachers coming to the class on time would be the desired end product or the change that I want to see. And me taking an action that aims at that particular desired change (here the teachers coming to the class on time) would be me trying to contribute to make the change happen. The change in the system would be if teachers start coming to the class on time. And if this eventually becomes the new tradition and every teacher is on time, then it would be the system changed.

My narrow mind could not get out of the student life I live and so I had to make it about some problem students would face in a college. But it goes the same for other “changes” and “systems”. And while I think I should make it clear again that it is the wrong use of such words that result in endless and directionless discussions, (since almost everyone is attracted to these terms), the only thing that can sort an end out of such an intense discourse is the understanding that words like these can be relative and personal.