I will digress here to consider what the essence of being radical is.
Some would define radicalism as promoting a view that the current order (them) has to be overthrown and replaced by something completely different (us), with little or no connection to that which preceded it.
Whenever or wherever this has happened in the world the result has been much the same as what went before! (Please see this post in the Chapter on Power and Control in Society).
Of course there are some people in influential positions within the Pillars that are unwise, obsessed with power, narcissistic and grandiose – who will never get it and will oppose change.
But it must be remembered that there are far more practitioners who are dedicated, experienced and wise and whose intelligence, compassion and insight, as well as, of course, know-how and education will be lost if we simply overthrow the establishment.
Generally, if people perceive something to be a threat they will close ranks – thereby excluding that which they perceive to be threatening them.
I find it very helpful, when I come across closing ranks, and I perceive it to be getting in the way of good work, to think of the most vulnerable child who needs protection and assess what would be most helpful to him, right here, right now!
(This is what I take from Gandhi’s well-known words: the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members).
Invariably I conclude that my time and energy would be better spent supporting the vulnerable and empowering the family of the child so that they and he will have better outcomes rather than taking on the closed ranks, that I know will never be cooperative, in endless battles where I’ll never win anyway.
I believe that the real radical approach is to eschew the never-ending fight and focus on relationships, and do it in a low profile manner. In my experience this approach will always be appreciated by the people who matter most.
And in terms of being radical, and doing things that make a difference while resisting the urge to be a mirror image of that which we feel is not working, there are people who are working in the voluntary sector who don’t get it, and people working in the statutory sector who do.
I have often experienced people working within the much maligned system, i.e. those people I described above, moving mountains to achieve a positive result despite the norms that constrain and restrain work within the Pillars.
And it is good to dismount from our high horse of harsh judgement. There are also very good people who don’t get it – just like I don’t get the world of high finance, or how to think like a politician.
Such people are not harsh, or cruel, or uncaring. It’s just that they can’t understand how people don’t learn from their mistakes [1].
In almost all societies that I have had experience or knowledge of, the general method of dealing with people who can’t seem to learn from their mistakes has been, (and still is) punitive. This is so prevalent that it is very hard to think outside it – so chapeau to those within the system who do. (The largely misunderstood phenomenon of people who don’t learn from their mistakes will be explored in Section Three throughout the Chapter on Trauma and Related Topics).
Really the most radical thing, if we want to change the way things are done, is to include people who we know will meet us as equals, break free of the competitive territorial stuff, and recognise allies that are positively disposed towards our point of view.
There are always unconvincables. These are people who may be so engrossed with their own sense of importance and ego, and have so little willingness to reflect, that the only way to get them to see a point of view other than their own is to defeat them with superior force. (In the day-to-day world of the statutory agency, this is usually translated as going over their heads).
Even then, when they have to give in, they are still convinced that they are right and may try to get their needs met by dishonest passive-aggressive means.
In Section Six there is a Chapter entitled Getting the Pillars to Believe. This explores how to bring bureaucratic organisations on board while still maintaining a truly radical ethos.
A lot of people (who consider themselves to be radical) don’t actually know how to bring bureaucracies on side, will continually complain to, or about the Pillars, or else sell out their radical souls, being too compliant.
I argue that this is in fact the most difficult and most important bit, and challenges us community workers to be leaders, getting the big bureaucracy to be a partner, and even invite people within it to be sceptical believers. (Actually; being anti everything runs the risk of feeding into the endless competition which can be a feature of the day-to-day work within the Pillars).
Once I did a brainstorm exercise with a group on the Bedford Row Family Support Course on culture, including the above topic of being radical, and here is a list of the words that came up:
Community: Enthusiasm, chaos, creativity, desperation, fear, incoherence, tolerance of wrongdoing, poverty, lack of formal education, anger, hunger, integrity, concern, motivation, knowledge of community, anarchy, desperation, diversity, frustration, distrust, alienation, crime, irreverence, violence, patience, imperfection, idealism, excitement, self-organisation, amateur, volunteering, emotional, ‘heart’
The Pillars: Formal education, access to finance, hypocrisy, bureaucracy, structure, status, hierarchy, fear, image, policies, protocols, political pressure, status, procedures, low morale, integrity, knowledge of finance, politics, punctuality, reverence, law abiding, order, work ethic, incongruence, dishonesty, get things done quickly, dutiful, boring, accountability, ‘head’.
And integrating the heart and the head is the most important process in respect of healing people who are hurting deeply.
[1]. If we think about it, all the wars that have been fought throughout history prove that, generally, we don’t learn from our mistakes anyway.