How to Change the World

Systems in Society

It is no secret that there are many structures in society that are in need of a massive overhaul. For instance, one such structure is the system of unpaid corporate internships. There is an inherent injustice in subjecting students to the lowest grade of work without compensating them a dime for their time. Most simply, organizations take advantage of students who want to gain real world experience by forcing them to work for free. Of course, the system justifies itself by providing students with school credit, but this only furthers the injustice done to students. Instead of simply working for free, students actually pay their schools for the credits they receive for participating in the internship. Certain educational programs even require students to engage in unpaid internships as a core part of their curriculum, further proliferating the problem. And the worse part of all is that students find themselves competing for the best unpaid internships, further empowering the structures that employ them.

Why Don't Changes Occur Often?

Despite the injustice of this system and many others like it in society, changes do not occur often. They are so established as “the way things work” that people buy into them and cause them to proliferate until they are so widespread that they become even harder to change. Do people not notice that systems are unjust? Do they notice but not care? Do they notice and care but think it’s impossible to change things, or are they too fearful to try? Or do people believe that is it easier to operate within a system as it is? Is it somehow easier or safer to adhere to a given system and play the game within it, according to prescribed rules, rather than uproot it and expose it for what it is? I came to law school to answer this question for myself.

My Background

Before coming to law school, I was part of a system like this. Throughout college, I worked as an unpaid intern at a prominent sports agency, with the goal of working my way up within the organization. For a long time I was naïve. I did not realize that I was being taken advantage of and I was happy to operate within the system because I enjoyed the prominence and the perks of what I was doing. But when I finally figured it out, my attitude didn’t really change. I understood that I was part of a system and that there was nothing I could do to change things. All that I could do was threaten to quit if they did not start paying me. Knowing the departmental budget as I did, I knew that the company would rather hire another intern than pay me to be a full time employee. So when I was ready to leave, I presented an ultimatum to the head of the department: hire me full time or I ghave to quit. As I expected, he passed on the opportunity. As much as I had become a part of their business, there were a hundred people in line ready to replace me. But what if there weren’t?

What Can be Done?

There is a way to change this system. For instance, if someone could unify all the college and graduate students of the world to go on strike against unpaid internships, the practice would end one way or another. Either organizations would begin to pay their interns for their work, or they would realize that they didn’t need their services and would adjust their business models. Then schools would not be able to force their students into unpaid internships. To most readers, this might seem like a completely ridiculous idea. But why?

Is it because people don’t care about this particular “problem”? Perhaps it does not have enough support to stage a revolution. Is it because, practically, this is an admittedly bad plan and would never work because it would be impossible to rally an entire nation of interns? Maybe. Is it because there is no better plan that can be devised? Possibly, but I would imagine that a creative lawyer could figure out a way to take on the system by going after certain companies for unfair employment practices. Are they afraid to upset established power structures? Probably. Or is it simply that people see value in existing within a given system rather than challenging it?

The Lawyer I Want to Be

I know that I want to be a lawyer who is not afraid to challenge the dominant system and start a revolution. But at the same time, I am unsure of its practical effects. A revolution cannot be started on a whim. It obviously has to be readily thought out and executed, accounting for every contingency, with every move planned out five steps in advance. Realistically, radical change is probably not feasible in a majority of circumstances. There will always be dominant power structures holding systems in place, and some will be harder to bring down than others. Additionally, it might not always be necessary to provoke and completely overhaul a system. If a goal can be accomplished within a system, there may be no need to uproot it just for the sake of doing so. But if my objectives are directly at odds with a system, or a cause presents itself that I am truly passionate about, I want to be able to change things. I want to be okay with the proposition of upsetting the power and to know how to do it without getting crushed. This will take a great deal of strategy and even more courage. I need to focus my law school learning on acquiring the skills and strategies to be able to operate both when revolution is necessary and when it is not, and to know when it is appropriate to employ either tactic.

To me, this is what it takes to change the world.

-- ElieT - 25 Feb 2013

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