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Insight: A recipe for system change
When it comes to pushing for system change, the first myth to abandon is that a “chosen one” is going to save us all. Instead, it is a massive work of improving (and sometimes replacing) the different parts of the big machine to increase the likelihood of success.
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“Why do good people always turn into villains once they enter politics?” Somebody asked me this on a panel about democracy and freedom of speech a few months back. “Had they always been bad, or is it inevitable that the system will change them for the worse?”
Many people believe it is the former, and I cannot blame them. It is reasonable to assume that one’s rise into power simply reveals who one was all along. You cannot become corrupt unless you have what it takes, or that you never had moral boundaries in the first place. This premise naturally leaves people feeling betrayed, or fooled, for having trusted the wrong person, somebody they thought was an idealist.
Instead, this question took me back to Ronald Heifetz’s class on adaptive leadership at Harvard Kennedy School. “When you’re outside the system, your [informal] authority is derived from the credibility you build from serving a specific group of constituents.” For example, as a climate activist, your influence comes from your understanding of the issue and consistency in speaking up. “However, once you have formal authority from your office, your constituents shift, or broaden, often significantly.” In other words, once you become an elected official, you have a different responsibility to your political party, your campaign financier, and more.
Your political calculus looks almost completely different now.
It is the vicious cycle: putting hope in a fresh face, just to find ourselves disillusioned not much later because they turn out to be “the same as those who preceded him”.
This is why, believing in the right “leader” per se is not enough. We also need to make sure that the system provides the right political, economic and social incentives for these individuals to thrive and make the best decisions.
It is upon us, the critical mass of informed voters, to pay equal attention to supporting the right individuals, while ensuring that we create the right enabling environment through the 2024 election. The following are a few suggestions.
