The direct relation of positive social change to politics

A good one from Robert Reich today:

"So, how many of you are interested in politics?" I asked a room full of University of Texas undergraduates today.

Not a single hand went into the air.

"Okay," I asked. "How many of you would like to be involved in a movement to raise the minimum wage?"

Twenty hands.

"How many of you would like join a movement to get big money out of our politics?"

Thirty hands.


"How many would like to be part of a movement to ensure no one who works full-time in America is impoverished?"

More hands.

"And that we have a nation of equal opportunity?"

Even more.

"That our system of justice is truly fair regardless of race?"

Lots of hands.

Then I told them these were all political movements, necessitating engagement in politics. And that the only way to achieve social change was through political change.

I think students today are turned off politics because they view it as maintaining the status quo, or corrupt, or worse. But they want positive social change. The challenge is to get them to see the connection between positive social change and politics.