It Matters: Challenging the Status Quo

Recently in class we have been discussing the importance of challenging the status quo, and effective ways of going about it. Challenging the status quo will happen forever; as long as people are unhappy with the way they are living, there will be those who step up and challenge the status quo to evoke a change in the social order. People like Martin Luther King Jr. who like many others saw that there was a problem, but he stood up and took leadership to challenge the status quo and stand up for what he believed in.

This idea can be related to our current situation under the leadership of Barack Obama. In his presidential address last week, he kept talking about how important it was to not be satisfied with the status quo, and to keep making changes to get to where we want to be in a society.

This relates to the TED talk that we watched in class about tribes. The Speaker, Seth Godin, had some very insightful ideas about leadership and what it takes to make a change. He kept advocating that it was not important to get everyone to follow your ideas, but a select group, or "tribe" of people that are dedicated to whatever the cause is, is the best way to go about getting what you want in a society.

There are definitely connections that can be made between Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama in their speeches. They both speak to the people and for the people. Also they both are very effective in laying out the problem or the injustice and then giving their take on how it should be fixed. Even though a speech doesn't physically change the way we live, hearing a speech as powerful as one of Dr. King, or Barack Obama empowers the people and sparks social change. Nowadays anyone can give their opinion by starting a blog or posting their opinions on the internet, but there is something about speeches that better connects human beings and expresses our ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MVtE7C-YVc