How Can We Change the World?

"There's a myth in our society that real change requires force, strength, and domination. We celebrate athletes, CEOs, and politicians who crush their opponents. But history tells a different story. Lasting social change has often been triggered by humble people whose weapons were passion, principle, and an unwavering commitment to justice and the truth - not the truth we see on TV or read in print media, but rather the truth that we feel deep inside ourselves."

"Rosa Parks wasn't a seasoned politician when she refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. She was a quiet, unassuming seamstress who had reached a point where she could no longer participate in her own diminishment. "I was not tired physically," she later wrote, "or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day.""

A cultural myth claims that real change requires force, strength, and domination, while history shows durable change often comes from humble people using passion and principle. Research demonstrates that nonviolent resistance campaigns are more than twice as effective as violent campaigns at achieving social change. Acts of dignified refusal, like Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat, can spark broad movements. Mohandas Gandhi used satyagraha, a willingness to suffer for truth, to confront colonial rule through moral force rather than violence. True power arises from fidelity to values, courage, humility, and lifting others rather than domination; anyone can create change without wealth or fame.

Read at Psychology Today