Systems-level disruption leads to systems-level change. No one upends systems on their own; society has to be ready, the conditions have to be right. There has to be opportunity and capacity for change. Systems change is the accumulation of many different interactions and interconnections over time - the steady, continuous work of many different individuals and groups working on a cause from many different angles. When everything aligns and the time is right, rapid change happens all at once.
In her book, Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown talks about fractals - the concept that complexity replicates itself at various levels. She writes, “what we practice at the small scale sets the pattern for the whole system”. As I set out to write about disruption at scale, I found myself reading and re-reading what Emerald wrote a few weeks ago:
“Our role is to disrupt the capitalist priority of keeping us from one another, keeping us from helping and resourcing each other, from caring for those who are unhoused or struggling with drug misuse, or just simply falling behind because of the violent systems we are forced to operate through.”
In that post, Emerald was talking about disruption at the micro level; this line of thinking connects directly to macro level disruption. In my definition, disruption is anything that interrupts the status quo: consider the disconnection and the autopilot brought on by 9-5 drudgery to which we’ve all grown accustomed. Disruption at scale is repeating a pattern of connection at a smaller scale only with a bigger audience and more far-reaching implications.
So what does it take to create systems-level change? First, let’s cover a few basic principles.
If you leave this article with one thing, I hope it is this: systems produce what they are intended to produce. And most of the time, what they’re intending to produce is violence in the form of profiting off of inequity. When I talk about systems-level change, I am talking about eliminating the inherent violence in our systems and creating what Emerald calls ecosystems of care - systems in which everyone is cared for and has what they need to survive and thrive.
For instance, our healthcare system does not produce health and wellbeing - it produces profit for insurance companies. Our military doesn’t ensure peace - it serves as an enforcement arm of American capitalism and white supremacy abroad. Our education system doesn’t produce critical thinkers - it produces worker bees to populate our factories and corporations and people who believe that our world runs on meritocracy. This is not meant to throw shade on those working within those systems who are trying their damndest to do right by the people they are serving. Operating outside of the systems isn’t a realistic option for many people. Dismantling violent systems is the only way to completely avoid having to operate within these systems.
Sometimes folks will talk about fixing a broken system, but there is no fixing “broken” systems because they are not broken. Anyone who has been impacted by inequitable systems knows that the inequity isn’t a bug - it’s a feature. And anyone wringing their hands at the deep injustice of it all is only now seeing these systems for what they are. They haven’t been negatively impacted by these systems directly - more often than not, they have benefited. There is only dismantling inequitable systems. Intervening in a system leads to reform and perhaps some beneficial outcomes, but it won’t solve the root causes of the inequity.
That’s why you hear folks call for Medicare for All. Or free college education or universal Pre-K. Or universal basic income. Or the end of Citizens United. Or the abolition of policing and incarceration. You take away the inequity and the system falls apart. More precisely, the PROFIT behind the system falls apart. If the means of profit ceases to exist, there is an opportunity to create something equitable in the vacuum that is left behind.
I remember having a conversation with an Executive Director at one point about food insecurity. Their organization relied heavily on money from a foundation connected to a big-box retailer. We talked about the origins of food insecurity and how important it was that this organization grew food to give away to the “hungry”. I tried to gently bring their attention to WHY people didn’t have enough money for food and they got so close to understanding. If people are not paid a living wage, they will struggle to pay all of their bills, making decisions between medicine, rent, utilities, and groceries. The profit from the big-box store (profit made through calculated exploitation) was then given to a nonprofit to feed the “needy”, giving the company a hefty tax deduction. At the same time, our society will turn around and laud the efforts of companies who are “giving back”, ignoring that these companies are the source of societal ills in the first place. As a society, we are literally rewarding exploitation through our tax system.
The money flows to the top. The suffering and pain flows down.
So what does disruption look like on the macro-scale?
Disruption is Luigi Mangione executing a healthcare executive and causing insurance companies to actually start paying out. If “riots are the language of the unheard”, then surely executions are the language of those who no longer want to needlessly suffer for exponential shareholder value.
Disruption is a general strike where workers across the country withhold their labor. When companies offer no dignity to laborers, then no labor will be performed.
Disruption is chaining oneself to a tree in protest over the unjust confiscation of indigenous lands to build concentration camps and cop cities.
Disruption is marching through the streets when George Floyd was murdered, shutting down roads and city centers, causing disruption and inconvenience for those who only care about their own needs and getting to their destinations on time.
Disruption is showing up en masse and forming a barrier so that ICE agents cannot abduct community members.
Disruption in our institutions can look like sharing power, creating distributed leadership models, restorative justice, and operating from a place of love and care rather than productivity and profit.
Each of these examples, while they may feel extreme, are rooted in a desire for connection and care. Care for those who have been left to die at the whims of the insurance companies. Love and desire to spend time with our families rather than in a cubicle or on a factory line or in a warehouse. Connection to our communities and the need to stand up against injustice. Dignity in work and prioritizing whole human beings rather than the parts. Love for the natural world and a future in which we can live in harmony with the environment.
We disrupt systems when we visibilize and interrupt the greed, profiteering, and abuse so that regular folks who are struggling see the systems for what they really are. Connecting the dots creates recognition which in turn leads to rage which in turn foments rebellion. We are literally dying because of the disconnection and violence inherent in our systems. These systems don’t prioritize us, our loved ones, our communities, or the environment.
Systems-level disruption happens when love and care replicate at scale and when the circumstances align. Our job, right now, is to keep stoking the fires of connection and calling attention to the ways in which injustice plays out all around us. Gather, organize, and unite with others who want a different future. Keep an eye on the conditions and act when the time is right.