I started listening to Rutger Bregman’s new book Moral Ambition today. It’s a self-improvement book for people who want to make meaningful change (and with harsh warnings that it is useless for people who care only for their ego, money and personal happiness).
Just one point from the opening chapters, there is a discussion of what is different about people involved in radical action and those who are not. The example he uses is about one small town in The Netherlands, Nieuwlande, that protected many Jewish people during WW2. The people who helped there hid, on average, 5 Jewish people each from about 1942 thru to 1945.
Asking
Why? Most people in the Netherlands did not act even when aware of the issues.
There was a core of very committed people but the most important factor (from research) is that the people in this town were asked to help.
Asking.
One man, Arnold Douwes, was quite committed to just going around and asking for people to act. He did that a lot. He travelled huge distances by bicycle.
When asked, they helped.
This reminds me of another WW2 hero: the Belgian Comet Line Allied aircrew escape route organiser Andrée de Jongh. Again, her power was strongly rooted in her asking people to do things.
Change thru asking
The diagram at the top of this post is about that gap from Awareness and Action in change
Mostly people think of it being filled by people paying attention and then direct action. Yet what seems more true is that people are directed to action by being asked.
Willing?
The final thing this reminds me of is the word Willingness.
It’s a word used in Non Violent Communication and can seem a bit odd. Yet what it is saying is that one form of violence is to appear to listen while hiding your unwillingness to act.
The managers and institutions who waste the time and energy of people by holding events, meetings and workshops without any intention to use their power and capabilities to do anything. They are not willing.
That radical change can come from the act of Asking is important.
That radical change can be blocked by a deliberate decision not to be Willing is too.