Quietism and Power

How does one best go about changing the world? On the one hand, it is tempting to take up a quietistic approach - let things be, and let nature take its course. Many times when we try to control events, we make a bigger mess of them. Let us just take care of our own garden, and then at least that portion of the world will be better. Similarly, we can cultivate ourselves, and if we succeed in becoming better people, we can naturally help people around us and inspire them.

But I'm not sure that that approach always works. I was reading an article earlier today about some presidential candidate who wants communities to decide what is best for themselves - by outlawing mosques. I might be able to convince a few people around me that Muslims are not about trying to conquer all of America, but that hardly changes the systemic problem of prejudice in this country. Nor does the quietist approach change the structures that continue poverty and racism, amongst other problems.

So trying to control things from a high-level standpoint, through laws and politics and positions of power, seems necessary to deal with some issues, but it also produces social problems to have this stuff forced on society. Plus, it's not really feasible for all of us, since few have that power.

I had thought about education as being a solution. Teach people to think critically about the world around themselves, and maybe that can help them deal with whatever problems can arise. But I'm cynical about that now. When I was teaching philosophy, the students who were already critically analytical and thoughtful about the world were the ones who benefited from studying more of the same. The ones who really needed to be reached, simply crammed whatever I said into their pre-made categories, sometimes to the point of believing that I was saying the opposite of what I actually said.

We can't actually change human nature, and it seems to be human nature to approach the world according to our pre-set paradigms and to find the opposite painful. No one escapes this, and most don't have the temper, time, talent, or opportunity to even start examining their worldview. So what do we do when these worldviews cause suffering? We can't just let communities decide for themselves, because there are no isolated communities. The communities of Muslims criss-cross the communities of Islamophobes geographically & politically, so which community wins out in making decisions? Simply being a nice person to those around me and making sure a few friends and a few students understand the world a bit better might relieve a little suffering, but does it actually change anything? How does one get people to think about things that they need to think about, for everyone else's sakes, but which they are resistant to examine?