> Why did Occupy Wall Street subside in a matter of months, for instance, while the American Civil Rights Movement thrived, resulting in the passage of multiple laws?<p>This is probably the dumbest comparison we'll see out of HBR. It should be pretty clear that unavoidable discrimination and violence generation after generation is going to anger people and foster action way more than losing money.<p>And if you wanted to find examples in Occupy Wall Street, I'm sure there were people "agitating", "innovating", and "orchestrating". These are so squishy of terms as to be almost pointless.
Most change is generational. Went to my city council meeting last night because I wanted to make sure new housing was approved for. There were 300ish people there, probably an average of 60. Very few people under 40, maybe 10 most.<p>Changes happens when old people die, and new people take over who were shaped by different generational events.<p>It’s frustrating in some ways, but really pleasing in others because change will come, even if it looks like it never is going to happen. It’s a healthy tension between preservation and innovation. That being said, if you’re in agitator who succeeds, you’re most likely just in the right place at the right time...
To be sure, there are plenty of those who criticize incessantly without offering real alternatives where alternatives would be needed, and certainly one can theorize, but what I find worrying about this article is how it seems to be worshiping at the altar of leadership and change (and effectiveness in bringing it about; even the name of the module is "Power and Influence in Society"), without evidencing the slightest concern over moral considerations. Does X need to be changed? If so, to what end and in what ways such that we are behaving morally?