Rehearsing past social change undermines the felt inevitability of the present

Evidence

Barrington Moore has some things to say about activists, too, and their role in the dynamic process of radical change: “They do the hard work of undermining the old sense of inevitability.” A key strategy in this regard? Remind people of the ways things have changed in the past. Because large-scale social change has actually happened, again and again. … Telling stories about change in the past helps us see that change is always ahead, and helps shatter the inertial complacency that consistently makes now feel like it has a hold on forever. — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 192

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names ‘undermining the sense of inevitability’ as the activists’ specific job within radical change.