changing institutions from the inside

I have a good friend who used to work in advertising. He was at first highly successful and told me his plan was to change things from the inside. As an outsider, he had seen advertising as something very lacking in creativity and quality. But somehow his efforts dwindled, his motivation palled and he ended up leaving the industry after only a few years. Everything that goes into a saltmine becomes salt was his verdict. The environment of advertising was actually a much more powerful determinant of adverts than the individual skills of the creatives making them.

Environment is constantly overlooked in an age of individualism. Even the rallying against 'structural racism' and the 'patriarchal system' overlooks the bigger picture which is that you can't change things from the insidie- however tempting that may be.

If you go to Hollywood expecting to convert people to sensitive european style films don't be surprised if you end up script doctoring a Marvel Film set in Paris, giving it a 'more local feel'. Environment is the single most powerful factor in affecting the outcome of what we do. I include what we wear, the thoiughts we are having as we do something, the people we mix with, the room you work in, the food you eat. Stack all that against a few stray words, a line of text echoeing around your skull and you can see how unequal the contest is.

Even if you chose to write a novel you are actually entering a world of very set stuctural parameters, there is more set in stone that you might imagine even in this oasis of creativity. The structures sort of spring into your mind unbidden just by thinking the words "I will write a novel".

Deep in the Sahara Desert, Dakhla Oasis in Egypt has an ancient temple called Deir El Haga. There, in the same place, is late period Ptolemeic Egyptian graphic art alongside very early wall paintings by Christians with writing in unformed Greek letters. The ancient art of Egypt is rigid and deeply carved; the Christian imgery is crude, almost childish looking, but leaps off the wall with its vitality. The temple, abandonned by the old Egyptian priests, was simply a graffiti wall for the new Christians. Having made their break from the culture they were now making their mark on it, conquering from the outside not the inside.

The early Christians went out into the desert (actually to the salt mine of Wadi Natrun) in order to break from the old order. I am less interested in how right or wrong their actions were (reading about early Christians such as Peter the Bigot may put you off a bit) and more interested in how they made a decisive cut with the old culture. They were not going to change it from within, they were going to do their own thing even if it meant a life of poverty and obscurity. Then of course they got noticed and eventually the Roman Empire converted to this obscure desert religion and spread it everywhere.

All things exert their own gravitational pull on you. An environment is field of great but invisible strength. In order to break free of something you have to change your environment. This is one origin of the ancient idea of pilgrimage and going on a journey to achieve enlightenment.

Many of the problems of the current era- the soaring mental health problems for example- are a function of environment. They cannot be fixed, only fled from, or weathered in some way. If you can escape this environment you may have more of a chance than someone who cannot. For those observing there is always a feeling of 'how can we change things for the better'? The first step is to build on the outside, do your own thing, give up on the attractive notion of changing things from within...