How can Social Change be brought about, in a Totalitarian Society like the One Nafisi Describes - Essay Example

?How can Social Change be brought about, especially in a Totalitarian Society like the One Nafisi Describes? Totalitarian societies suppress the rights of the individuals of freedom of words or actions and the most common reaction of people under such circumstances is a silent retreat. Social change can be brought about by breaking the silence and devising means to change the mindset of society by introducing little steps to change the existing system. Little things have strong repercussions and a greater impact in bringing about social change. In order to break the silence or discover possibilities to exercise their free will, individuals must strive to resist to such pressures on individual level. If only people realize what a deadly solution silence is, they would never choose to resort to it. It is a manifestation of the weakness and inability of individuals to stand for their basic human rights. In order to fight the system, Nafisi had to create a little world of her own with a like-minded group of students in order to evade the restrictions of the totalitarian regime they were living in. The classic literary works they studied together opened new vistas for their inner struggles to break the silence and to stand for their rights and this is how they survived in such suffocating circumstances with little efforts. “… like Lolita, we tried to escape and to create our own little pocket of freedom.” (Nafisi, 435) They developed a strong bond during their struggle to keep their spirits alive and to carve out a little space for themselves and also learnt how to handle unfavorable circumstances. This is what Gladwell says about the Power of Context: “… the Power of Context says that what really matters is little things.”(242) If people wait for radical social changes to take place, they must start by taking the first little steps themselves. Nafisi and Gladwell argue that environment plays an important role in shaping human behaviors. People tend to think and act differently under different circumstances and they even develop different perspectives of life in different situations. It was for this reason that reading Lolita in Tehran became an altogether different experience. “This then is the story of Lolita in Tehran, how Lolita gave a different color to Tehran and how Tehran helped redefine Nabakov’s novel, turning it into this Lolita, our Lolita.”( Nafisi, 420) Gladwell also emphasizes upon the strong impact of environment on human actions. Our behaviors undoubtedly reflect our familial and educational backgrounds, mentalities, and genetics- but most importantly they are shaped and governed by the environments we live in. We pick up cues from the environment and act or react accordingly. “The impetus to engage in a certain kind of behavior is not coming from a certain kind of person but from the feature of the environment.” (Gladwell, 238) In totalitarian regimes, it is incumbent upon individuals seeking social change to voice their concerns. The environmental factors might be discouraging and disheartening, but it is within human powers how they behave in particular situations. It is important to have will power, voice and the determination to express yourself through sensible and methodological actions. Social change can be brought about on the grassroots-level of totalitarian societies by instilling a general awareness about free will and the right to exercise it through words and actions. Rampant and radical movements can be easily undermined by such political systems by force; however, awareness about basic human rights seeps in the deepest layer of societies over the years. Such changes evolve slowly out of the dire need of the citizens to express their free will. In a totalitarian society like the one Nafisi describes, individuals are forced to redefine their behaviors particularly in public. People are forced to practice such customs in which they do not believe in; and they are expected to act and behave like the tools of a totalitarian system. If given an opportunity to live in a different and progressive environment, the same individuals would act and respond differently. It is important to understand the philosophy of a certain act of society or community in order to survive or to bring social change. By getting into the system and learning about its mechanism, social changes can be introduced accordingly. It is imperative to remember that something that worked out for one situation would not work out in the same manner for another. Each situation has its unique set of problems, solutions, and reasons to seek their solutions; and social change cannot be brought about as long as people do not make conscious efforts to eradicate the evils of the system. It is a step by step process and requires patience, determination and resilience of the individuals or communities that are working towards the fulfillment of their dreams. The reason why Nafisi chooses to read and discuss ‘A Thousand and One Nights’ was because Scheherazade managed to handle the cruel scheming of the king to murder a virgin every night in order to avenge his unfaithful queen. She was able to do so with her imaginative power- which proved to be stronger than the physical power and prowess of the king. The virgins, who, unlike Scheherazade, have no voice in the story, are mostly ignored by the critics. Their silence, however, is significant. They surrendered their virginity, and their lives, without resistance or protest. They do not quite exist, because they leave no trace in their anonymous death… Scheherazade breaks the circle of violence by choosing to embrace different terms of engagement. She fashions her universe not through physical force, as does the king, but through imagination and reflection. (Nafisi, 430) The silent virgins in ‘A Thousand and One Nights’ represent the silent and suppressed societies. However, one individual has the power to change the system with sheer imagination. Scheherazade devised a peculiar way of enticing the king to listen to her stories night after night and thus evaded her death at the hands of the king. In Gladwell’s essay, the crime rate of New York fell down drastically because such imaginative methods were adopted that not only suited the prevailing system but modified it in such a way that everything got under control. In the case of fare beating problem in New York back in the 1990’s, “Bratton retrofitted a city bus and turned it into a rolling station house, with its own fax machines, phones, holding pens, and finger printing facilities. Soon the turnaround time on an arrest was down to an hour.” (239) This is a brilliant example of how one individual designed a simple technique and solved an enormous problem. He was able to do so because he understood the system. Instead of taking long shots and revamping the entire system, he simply introduced a simpler method to tackle huge issues. While this solution worked for New York, this cannot bring about the same level of social change in Iran because the problems are unique and have evolved in an entirely different context. However, people like Nafisi try to break the silence by making little efforts on individual and group levels to bring some sort of change in their personal and collective lives; but in order to transform it into a bigger social movement, conscious efforts need to be made starting from the grass root level. Little things can really make big differences but it takes a lot of time and perseverance. Totalitarian regimes try to control the private and public lives of its individuals with force and thus, such circumstances tend to pose really tough challenges for individuals seeking social change. In any case, fighting such oppressive authorities with force or revolution may complicate issues. The best way to deal with it according to Nafisi and Gladwell is to break the silence and work towards a gradual yet persistent change in a totalitarian system and this might take decades. Work Cited Gladwell, Malcolm. The Power of Context. Nafisi, Azir. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books. Read More