When the World Changes Without Exploding: On Social Change
Revolutions —those abrupt breaks that fill the pages of history books— speak to us of fire and flags, of violent transformations that sweep away old orders and promise new ones. Many of them did pave the way: the French Revolution, the Bolshevik uprising, the anti-colonial movements. Yet, alongside hope, they also brought rejection, panic, and hatred. Changes of such magnitude tear at the social fabric: part of society closes off, radicalizes, clings to the familiar, and rejects any novelty it cannot understand or accept.
But the social transformation that truly endures does not happen during “revolutionary” hours. It unfolds gently, in everyday life, in daily conversations, across generations that change without even realizing they’ve changed. These slow transformations —emergent or the result of social engineering— are the ones that truly reshape the collective consciousness. They need no barricades, bullets, insults, or threats: they arise in education, in the media, in institutions, and in gestures that are naturally shared.
Education: Two Faces of the Same Power
Education can be either a vehicle for emancipation or a tool of alienation.
a) Liberating education. When teaching promotes critical thinking, it confronts feared dogmas. That’s how slavery was rejected, how ecological awareness arose, how civil rights were reimagined: through pedagogies that invite questioning, analysis, repair, and dreaming. In this mode, the citizen is shaped as a reflective subject, capable of understanding and transforming the world.
b) Manipulative education. But the word “education” can also cloak darker projects: those that distort the very idea of educating in order to domesticate us, to numb us. This form of education does not question or provoke reflection; it indoctrinates. It fuels separatist ideologies, fosters anti-science sentiments (as seen in anti-vaccine discourse), and cultivates fragmented identities driven by narrow emotionalism. The saddest part is that these practices often parade as legitimate teaching: they distort reality, shape perceptions, and isolate minds.
In this sense, there are numerous examples of philosophers and political theorists who have been exalted to academic sainthood, yet whose work collapses under the slightest critical scrutiny for being dogmatism in its purest form (e.g., Paulo Freire).
The Clash Between Two Forms of Change
| Abrupt Change (Revolution) | Gradual Change (Emergent) |
|---|---|
| Visible, conflictive rupture | Silent, cultural evolution |
| Generates fear and rejection | Gradual inclusion and acceptance |
| Risk of social fragmentation | Slow consensus-building |
| Often imposed from above | Arises from the grassroots |
Why Slow Changes Matter More
Because they leave no visible victims, no waving flags. They shift the ground beneath our feet without us noticing. These seemingly invisible processes are deeply transformative: they reshape mentalities, reconfigure collective practices, and make room for new ethical frameworks for coexistence. Think of how we’ve changed our consumption habits due to environmental awareness, or how we’ve reconsidered gender roles, or how we’ve embraced values like cooperation and respect for diversity.
These gradual changes can be guided by public policy or grassroots movements. They require pedagogy, debate, a shared sense of purpose, and collective experience. In these spaces, education plays a central role: in the classroom, in the home, in the media, in the streets.
Let’s recognize that not all change must be painful, nor every movement a rupture. Real collective transformation can be soft, flexible, even mundane in its beginnings. And in those moments, it is not only visible structures that shift, but the very ways we see, feel, and act.
However, we must stay alert: not every slow or gradual change is enriching. We are constantly at risk of ideological manipulation through appealing messages, catchy slogans, and the (manipulative) pedagogy of activists in sheep’s clothing.
Note: This post was filtered through an AI system solely for grammatical and expression correction purposes.