Why Collaboration is Key to Real Social Change
In our society the seems to be an abundance of winners and losers, and to most, that seems okay. If you work hard you make it if you don’t society will help you out at the bare minium. At P:HC we think we can do better than this, we can create a better society. We believe that the way that society is currently playing out we value the wrong things, we admire wealth, success and power and strive to achieve it but behind every successful person, there are others they climbed over to get there. That’s one thing, but the way our economy is set up is another – we continue to profit off each other to advance our interests. This system has shown time and time again that it doesn’t work. From financial recessions caused by powerful bankers to impending environmental collapse from the unabated use of fossil fuels, the obsession with power and wealth has saturated humanity to the core with the majority of it, left powerless to resist the consequences of the actions of a few. That’s not cooperation, that’s not the collective interest of the population governing itself and perpetuating the sustainable continuity of the group. It’s short sighted actors vying for control and power. So it’s not a surprise that things like hate and isolationism spring up across the world. In turbulent times, we cling to our families and support systems. In times when we are economically disenfranchised, environmentally threatened and existentially conflicted with nuclear war in our attempts to protect what little we as independent nations still have, it’s no surprise that populist seem to pop up all over the globe. These new wave leaders often don’t solve our problems but distract us from the issues with a new enemy to focus on, preaching to our fears and calling us to gather as one group or another, to stay strong through our oppression.
At P:HC, we know this a distraction from the real cause of the problems we face – our mentality and values. You might be like “I thought the issues were the 1%?” Yes, they are, but we need to look deeper than that, to what makes the 1% possible and that is our mentality and values. We always want to lead a better life – the size and diversity of our population make it easy to see our obligation to the “other” not a personal one but a detached, invisible one. An obligation that only manifests through our need for what we can’t do ourselves. That idea perception of a division is the problem we need to reorient our values so that everyone in society is important, every job deserves respect, and every person is a valuable member of our collective society. These are things that don’t set us up to pit each other against one another, in pursuit of a better life in society. When we see ourselves above others, we rationalise our disenfranchisement and manipulation because at least there’s someone less than us.
This is the mentality that we hope to reshape at P: HC, through bringing people together to empower each other we hope we can foster the environment where we see each other a equals, as a community, as human. When times become tough, remember that we are the 99%, we are the planet and we shape its direction, so let’s work together to reclaim our social power of collaboration, interdependence and freedom. We are only powerless when we think we are, we are only alone when we don’t see others carrying the same burden.