You have control within the system

People often look to systems as the cause of unhappiness in the world. They argue that systems are creating victims. If someone is not happy and successful, then the system must be unjust.

Judging systems leads us to believe that they are like people, acting towards their goal or mission. We can see an “evil” system form and then those hurt by the system become victims.

In Men and Systems by James Allen, the author argues against this way of thinking. He presents a hypothetical situation to demonstrate his point.

He says, “To make this more plain, let us take a simple illustration. Here are ten men who mutually agree to engage, among themselves, in certain forms of gambling. Now, the object of each of those men is to win, and so increase their wealth, yet they all know that there is also the possibility of losing; know, indeed, that some must lose, for such is the unavoidable hazard of the game.”

After many rounds of play, some of those individuals gain the riches of others. Are those winners bad or evil? Is the system that they all agreed to, evil?

Allen’s point is that when we act in a system, we are sustaining that system. We are part of the system and our actions align with the system’s morality.

This example is a very small system where each individual agrees to take part. It is a system where greed fuels the behaviors of the actors. They want to gain money without working for it. Win or lose, greed is the motivator.

So, the system is the reflection of their desires. The system, then, creates that opportunity with a hazard for those unlucky ones who lose the game.

In this structure, feeling that the system is cruel, or that the losers of the game are victims, assumes they did not take part in the very system that victimized them. They created it. They knew what the system meant. They acted in free spirit.

Unfortunately, most systems in real life are not this simple. We are born into existing systems and structures that were created many years before our birth. We can’t develop our own system but must go along existing systems.

But we are still part of the system. Going along with the system perpetuates it. But if we walk into a casino, it doesn’t mean we built the gambling system. It does mean that we are conspiring to keep the system going.

To make it more complex, we are taking part in millions of systems at all time. Life is fueled by systems. They are everywhere. Our taking part in the system is inevitable in many situations.

That is why it is difficult to avoid looking to the system as good or bad, right or wrong. It is easy to identify victims of the system. They likely didn’t even realize that they were acting to perpetuate a system.

I would argue that it isn’t that we are creating the systems around us but that we are taking part. But it does mean that we do have more control than we realize. We can change the system. We can go along with the system. We can push back against the system. We can decide to live free of the system.

What most do, however, is to continue to play out the role and perpetuate the system. They see their role as just, so they see no point in changing themselves. They want system change, but really they want the rewards of the system to point towards them. To truly change the system, they have to realize that self-change is required as well. The system won’t change when the actors continue to act in similar manners.