Why Visionaries Who Break Rules And InnovateShould Be The Norm And Not An Exception

Original Post: youthkiawaaz.com /2014/09/visionaries-break-rules-innovate-norm-exception/

By Anesa Kratovac (IDEX Fellow Alumni '14):

In this day and age, it is apparent that an outdated way of thinking about the role of politics, economics,medicine and many other areas of life is still permeating the collective livelihoods of most people on thisplanet. What is labelled as “alternative” is that which was a norm just a few centuries ago, while what istoday’s “mainstream” is scientifically validated but devoid of humanism and understanding of nature andman’s place in it. The industrial development of the 19th century gave us infrastructure and processes thatwere enormous technological breakthroughs then, but that have proven to be outdated and unsustainablefor the current human consumption and the rapid rate at which finite resources are plundered. The wave ofintellectual and technical advancements that gave us the free market, technology, medicine and innovationis now in competition with the Earth’s finite resources in a devastating outcome of corporate profit andhuman disease. Given this trajectory throughout the 20th century and our understanding of the danger ofcontinuing with these unsustainable mechanisms of growth, it is the task of the current generations to notonly deal with the consequences of the infrastructural development of the 20th century but to build newblueprints, systems and infrastructure that will continue progress and advancement into the future- thistime sensibly and sustainably.

Indeed, the question remains: how do we sever the ties to our collective past livelihoods and live in amanner that is non-wasteful but which can at the same time meet our modern needs? In his insightfulpublication Small is Beautiful: the Study of Economics as if People Mattered, E.F. Schumacher noted theparallel between the driving forces of today’s free market economics and the current rise in wars, diseaseand the consumerist mentality based in greed and envy. In order to make the shift towards a new way ofthinking and existing in the world, he proposes innovating education, whose source should be the basiccore values that guide us to live ethically:

All history- as well as current experience- points to the fact that it is man, not nature, who provides theprimary resource: that the key factor of all economic development comes out of the mind of man.Suddenly, there is outburst of daring, initiative, invention, constructive activity, not in one field alone, but inmany fields all at once….Science and engineering produce ‘know-how’, but ‘know-how’ is nothing by itself;it is a means without an end, a mere potentiality, an unfinished sentence…Even the greatest ideas ofscience are nothing more than working hypotheses, useful for purposes of special research but completelyinapplicable to the construct of our lives or the interpretation of the world….Education cannot help us aslong as it accords no place to metaphysics. Whether the subjects taught are subjects of science or of thehumanities, if the teaching does not lead to clarification of metaphysics, that it to say of our fundamentalconvictions, it cannot educate a man and, consequently, cannot be of real value to society. [pg. 49-60]

Schumacher wrote this analysis in 1973, and forty years later, we are still dealing with the same issues.Take education, for example. The education system and knowledge regurgitation that schools all over theworld currently foster is one that was created by and for the 19th century European society. It was onebased on providing enough linear knowledge for the masses that were to enter the specialization ranksthat characterized the new industrial age. Art, philosophy and music, on the other hand, were luxuries thatthe upper classes could indulge but which were denied and seen as unnecessary skills needed to createefficient worker masses of the day. Creativity and the arts rarely played a role in the education system, and

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critical thinking was largely suppressed. Unmistakeably, a society based on generating producers and

consumers leads to economic growth, but also to social erosion, herd mentality and the severing of tieswith nature. Now, we are at a point where economic growth has reached its limit and the effects of itsdamage can no longer be ignored; collectively, we need to act. At the same time, the term “development”needs to be redefined to mean the systematic ability to simultaneously satisfy social, infrastructural,economic and environmental necessities of any one place. This holistic approach is the only way that wecan account for the poverty and social problems that are still prevalent in the light of vast corporate wealthand enormous scientific and technological advancement. Indeed, development cannot solely rely on theeconomic process and growth; rather, it is a concept that must encompass holistic perspective of thelivelihood improvement of individuals.

If the government and our institutions are too slow to yield to the call of change, how do we as individualstake it upon ourselves to make it happen? One way is to empower ourselves through critical thinking aboutthe world around us, which is characterized by questioning, observation and research. Another is to openour minds and to start thinking out of the box and leading our personal and professional lives humanely.And speaking of leading, innovative leadership is exactly what is needed to shift the current systemtowards a socially-beneficial one. It is the leaders of tomorrow who will forge a new path to governance,corporate responsibility to society, human-centric healthcare system and influence many other areas ofsociety. The best leaders in history have been innovators, rule-breakers and visionaries; and what theyhad in common was their concern for the humanity and the world. It is time to make such leadership anorm and not an exception, to create humane leaders in every part of the world who can collectivelytransform their societies to be ready for the demands of our shared future.

Many people and grass-roots organizations are taking the initiative to reach young people with values andcommunity service awareness before the system gets to them and repeats the cycle of generatingspecialists with no interest in the world outside of the self. In doing so, wherever young people end up inlife and whatever profession they choose, they will lead this path humanely and with regard to others andthe future of the planet.

The Blue Ribbon Movement, a youth leadership training social enterprise where I work, for example, hasinitiated the Re-lead training program to address this need to re-evaluate leadership in the context oftoday’s rapidly changing world. The international training program looks for budding and existing leaderswho desire to upgrade their leadership skills and does this holistically using content from variousleadership domains and from a variety of disciplines such as ontology and psychology. Self-reflection isencouraged and meaningful balance of personal growth and of understanding how professional decisionscan impact the larger good is the overall aim. BRM’s Re-lead 3.0 program is held in Mumbai thisDecember and will primarily focus on discovering the participants’ passions, skills and notions behind theireconomic drive. Initiatives such as Re-lead bring us closer to reprogramming the collective consciousnessto be independently thinking members of society, to lead humanely and to leave a beneficial legacy for thenext generations. Every effort to get closer to collective transformation counts; let’s strive to be the goodwe want to see in the world.