March 2, 2008
Fred L. Nance Jr.
Walden University
PhD Human Services
The Political & Cultural State of America & Social Change
I am a student with Walden University, in its PhD Human Services program. I am in the dissertation stage of the program. This brief writing is on how “real” social change is beginning to take place in America.
Scott London (1996) authored “Understanding Change: The Dynamics of Social Transformation.” This article articulates how change takes place, our need for it and our resistance to it. My professor, Dr. Monica Gordon, suggested I select one of the three salient points the author made about social change, assess the author's perspective and say whether this perspective resonates with my experience with my research population or any other social situation in which I am familiar. I choose to elaborate, briefly, on the Presidential race of 2008 and its efforts toward social change.
In a brief discussion on individual change, London draws from Peter Senge (1990) and his “personal mastery” suggesting individuals achieving change must center on a fundamental question of “whether they are willing to change in the first place.” He offers two additional questions, “Is a person prepared to open up to new inputs, insights, and understandings? Is he or she prepared to be changed in the process of effecting change?” With these questions, London suggests social change takes place through individual motivation.
It is my belief the political stage in American has set the theatre for some dramatic social changes now and in the future. The 2008 Presidential race between Democratic opponents Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton seem to be putting in motion change strategies for individual motivation. The change strategies appear to be drawing individuals who have not been involved in the voting processes of America.
The thought of a black man and a woman running for the Presidential office of the United States is social change in itself. It seems talk of this type of change, Obama and Clinton, has aroused the interest of those who are seeking a different government of power, equality and a way of life for America. The individual aspirations and inspirations of Obama and Clinton have stirred up the individual aspirations and motivations of others, thus producing individual motivation toward social change.
The discussions and debates by Obama and Clinton on “their” main issues about the war and its consequences, foreign policy and healthcare are monumental to most Americans. These points of concern are important, but there is an even greater concern by those who have been motivated and energized. Obama and Clinton’s debates have drawn many voters out of their hiding places, with their attempts to not offend their constituents and each other. Nevertheless, Obama and Clinton seem to make elusive more important issues such as poverty, housing, tuition cost and race relations through this paradigm of “do no harm.”
However, the social change movement created by this Presidential race is drawing a generation of voters who are bringing their parents out of the woodwork to vote. This phenomenon has additional factors. These new voters are interested in whether they will be able to afford or keep their houses, whether they will be able to afford the rising cost in tuition for education of their children, that is superseding present income levels, and whether race relations will become stable enough for those who are baby boomers transitioning with those who are from generation X or Y. Generation Y appears to have very few issues with race relations. Where is this discussion?
London suggests effective change strategies must build on the caring and personal commitment of all the players involved. London quotes social philosopher Phillip Slater’s (1991) stating “People are reluctant to change because change is uncomfortable and demands a great deal of energy. Therefore when people ask where to start working for change, the answer is that since change makes heavy demands on motivation and energy, you should start where you care the most and do what you like to do the most-that will be where you contribute the most energy and be most effective.”
What Obama and Clinton have done is monumental in form and scope, and should not be taken lightly. The individual motivation and energy of this Presidential race will impact generations to come, bringing with it a social change phenomenon that will ignite an America having global effects on communities and the world.
References:
Senge, P. M. (1990). The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization. New York: Currency Doubleday
Slater, P. (1991). A Dream Deferred. Boston: Beacon Press.
