by Alan Czarnek
| The unreasonable man is
the one who expects the world to adapt to his
needs, the reasonable man is the one who adapts
himself to suit the world. Therefore, all
progress depends upon the unreasonable man.
George Bernard Shaw |
If you ever hope to change something, don't 'accept' it.
Acceptance of anything is a double edged sword, because to accept something implies that we have decided not to try to change the situation. Sometimes that is a good thing because there are some conditions that we can't change..... But we should be very careful about the things we 'accept' as unchangeable.
I am noticing more and more that there are people in our society who use the argument, 'you must accept the inevitable' to justify the status quo REGARDLESS of whether the situation is really unchangeable or not...... Their message is: 'You are powerless to do anything about injustice so the only healthy response is to accept it......' To which I say: BULL.
We must make the distinction between the things that really are unchangeable and those things that are not. There are many physical conditions that are unchangeable (at least in our lifetimes), but social conditions and social customs should almost always be considered 'changeable.'
It is one thing to say, 'I have a physical hearing loss, and I must accept that,' and quite another thing to say 'I have a hearing loss and society treats me like a second class citizen and I must accept that.' Yes, there are plenty of people (mental health professionals) who will tell us that the second statement is not only correct, but also represents healthy adjustment ............... Once again, I say, BULL.
Of course it is much easier to accept the status quo .... if we try to change an unjust situation we will surely encounter fierce resistance from those who benefit from the injustice ....... Think about that, just as there are those who suffer from injustice, there are also those who benefit from injustice. How can we identify the people who benefit from injustice? They are usually the ones who try to convince us that 'life is unfair and there is nothing that you can do about it.' What that statement really means is that life is unfair in their favor; they are benefiting from injustice. They are trying to talk you out of doing anything that would decrease their "unfair advantage."
In the long run, being 'unreasonable' when we face injustice is a much healthier response than 'accepting' it, and who knows, we might just end up making the world a little better place than it was before.........
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