Change rarely happens at the pace we’d like it to, and it’s rarely a mutual transaction, but rather a gradual and unwilling coup d’état – a slow, incremental wresting-away of the ship’s helm by each consecutive generation.
I’ve always believed that the timeline of real change is generational – especially where the ancient machines of society and ideology are concerned. As the old guard dies, so die many of their ideologies, and so dies their power and command.
Each younger set of hands on the wheel gains control as they gain strength, and each begins a slow course-correction based on younger, fresher ideologies. Naïveté gives way to experience, mistakes are made, and lessons are learned. Eventually, these hands too will grow weak, and the next set will have already taken hold of the wheel, slowly overpowering the old. This is the way it’s always been, and both the old and the young can take solace in it.
To the old guard who fears change: you were once the young hands, wrestling control from an old guard who feared you, and ultimately, you’ll be long gone before the world you’ve helped create becomes too unrecognizable.
To the youth who fear change will never come: it always has, and always will. Start now. Get educated. Run for office. Start a small business. Volunteer in your community. Build a platform and use it to disseminate your ideology, be that platform art, music, social media, or a literal platform. Pay attention to your elders – you can learn from both their successes and their failures. Most of all, stay hopeful and stay driven.
The world will be yours to steer sooner than you think.