Review by Christina Gillett
The Leaderless Revolution: How ordinary people will take power and change politics in the 21st century is good, thought provoking, although not quite everything I hoped it would be.
Carne Ross is crystal clear that governments are ill-equipped to manage the massive issues that we are led to believe no one but government can take care of. He challenges our belief that we can’t take care of them ourselves.
The most striking way that Ross backs up this argument is by describing his experiences and failures as a diplomat, and those of his colleagues, as well as explaining ‘how things work’ from an inside perspective. His honesty was quite shocking (in a good way), and in such contrast to often seen tendencies to gloss over mistakes or expend more effort ‘managing the message’ than learning or trying to improve future outcomes.
We hear, and say, that system change is required. And by that we often mean that there is nothing we can do without system change – and the system change we mean is top-down, government led.
Carne Ross knocks the legs out from under that table by arguing that governments actually do not have the ability to handle the complex and dynamic nature of large global issues. He talks about the requirement for governments to over-simplify and turn into black and white, and the inability of governments to adapt, learn, respond and grow – made all the more challenging by an emphasis on communicating that they know exactly what they are doing and have it all under control, so that they can stay in power and continue their efforts.
I keep hearing that we have the solutions to climate change and related issues, but there is a lack of political will. This book argues that even if we give the benefit of the doubt and assume political will, governments often have their hands tied because decision-making is so bound up in agreements and promises to people who have given them money, favours or promises. Even if they want to do the right thing, according to Ross, politicians are not free enough to make decisions or act based on the best-available data.
It’s worth mentioning that this book was published in 2011 so it’s possible that government decision-making capacity has improved since then, but what he says about our lack of agency because of the way government positions itself, and because of our beliefs about who has the power to make change, still rings true.
There’s a lot here that is aligned with the section in Joanna Macy’s ‘Active Hope’ about ‘power over’ and being ‘in power’. She says our typical way of seeing power and those who are ‘in power’ leads to a certain type of behaviour from those who ‘have’ power, such as mental rigidity and prioritising ‘keeping power’, whilst simultaneously leaving ordinary people with the feeling that they do not have the power to change these big things that need changing in the world.
The Leaderless Revolution makes a case that we can’t wait for top-down system change. Governments are less able to solve these problems than we are. We don’t realise how powerful we are.
Touching on how ordinary people will take power and control, he cites some famous examples of people who have triggered massive change – such as Gandhi. He outlines some principles he believes to be important for change, such as, the action should be non-violent, and it should be directly related to the actual issue (for example Gandhi made salt in protest about the British not allowing the Indian people to make salt). But for me, he didn’t quite get me to a place where I could see: what do we do? How do we, the ordinary people become empowered and change politics and systems? How can we support other people to do so? He talks about his experience of ‘being the country’ as a diplomat, and a lot of his perspective comes from that distant level, or from examining stories of unique characters or situations. I had hoped for more about how ordinary people can make change, more about the coming together of the people, the grass roots and how to ignite change. So, although I was left feeling inspired that we, the ordinary people can, will and must, make change happen, there was something missing for me.
I do recommend reading it. I found myself quoting it, thinking about it, talking about it a lot while reading it and for a long while afterwards. It is inspirational in that it inspires an understanding that there is nothing to be patient for, nothing to hope for, that we don’t create ourselves. Sort of like an ‘active hope’ concept as per Joanna Macy. It communicates very clearly that change does and must happen through us. It leaves me even more curious about, in that case, what do people need so they can stand up and act? And it makes me ask more seriously, what is mine to take on? What levers do I have within my grasp?
Perhaps it generates more questions than it answers but I think asking curious, genuine, open-minded questions is a brilliant starting point to re-imagining and instigating change. And it has probably influenced my behaviour positively.
