“Change” has been a real buzzword for the past couple of years – really since Obama’s election campaign. No need to look up in the Oxford Dictionary – change is a break from the past or from the current ways. So, if we’re not happy with the current status quo we want “change”.
Tunisia has seen major change – its government has been toppled and the president who has ruled for over 23 years has fled the country. Egyptians want “change”, and oust Mubarak – leader for 30 years. Unsurprisingly, Obama is a champion of this change business and wants to usher in a new era for Egypt (and also seeing an opportunity for gaining street cred on Middle East matters – but that’ll be for another entry) and the same is now also pushed by the Europeans.
Do we all know what this “change” looks and feels like once we’re done with the changing and inhabit the world it has created? In Egypt, unlike Tunisia, there are several factions clashing on the streets: the pro- and against-government. Do we really think or hope to understand what each of the people on Tahrir square want, expect, and push for? Ask anyone and their vision for today is clear: remove Mubarak. Ask what their vision is for the end of 2011 and you’ll get a range of different opinions. Ask about 2020 and you’ll get a wildly variable set of expectations and hopes.
What’s really interesting is that every person will push in the direction they most wish to inhabit in the future. And after an experience like Egypt and Tunisia it is clear that change is possible and achievable, so individual agency will run at full throttle.
So, while the actual idea of immediate change can be shared almost universally, the products from that are far less unifying. In a sense talking about “change” in a campaign (and many politicians have adopted this slogan) is a bit of a trick: we all agree that change is needed, yet once change has occurred and we’re down to discussing the nitty-gritty of policy implementation, we’ll observe the sprouting of new camps arguing for new change…
Filed under: Future, National outlooks, Participation, Scenarios, Tipping point Tagged: | change, Future, national outlook, scenarios
