Adam Kahane does come from a place of privilege. This is obvious from the kinds of trips he has made based on his stories from the book, the kinds of connections he has had with many different political and business leaders from around the world, and the fact that he has book published by his won company, Reos Partnerships. I believe that just because he comes from a place of power and privilege does not mean that his ideals for social change are invalid. He has the means of power, the means to achieve any goal he would like, the money and the networking; and by understanding that this world is more than just himself, that there is a need for social change, he has tried to incorporate his power with love.
Throughout the book he has reasserted the importance of balancing power and love: “We need to be able to prevent ourselves from going so far with our power that we lose touch with our love, or so far with our love that we lose touch with our power. This requires building up our awareness of and openness to feedback about how we are exercising our power and our love and with what results” (Kahane 130). These are wise words, and I definitely have feedback about the book. This book personally is not for me. Kahane did not connect to me strongly throughout the book because I could not relate to him. I could sympathize with his beliefs in social change, but we have nothing in common besides this. The fact that he is going around the world, talking to different companies, political figures and businessmen about social change and working with their groups shows me that there is not much empowerment of the disempowered. The disempowered are the poor in rich and poor countries, those who are uneducated and those who have circumstances that are not given attention to. A positive social change in this economically polarized society comes when a person of power shares their wealth with the disempowered, knowing that their inter-connected lives will become more prosperous through a dialectical and equitable relationship between each other. I do not think that this book is directly trying to do that; instead it is addressing other intellectuals and people of privilege with concepts and ideas. This book is not necessarily accessible to the everyday person because it is written in academic English, and it is a book where one has to have an interest for “a theory and practice of social change”, which a lot of people do not know the meaning of. It is for people who would want to learn about the theory and practice of social change from a book. I personally was not interested in the book, and many college students like me (not all but many) would not have read this if it was not assigned.
Even if this book did not relate to me, I cannot leave out its merits. A Filipino leader in the United Farm Workers’ movement named Philip Vera Cruz once said: “a movement must be a struggle at all fronts”. Kahane is included in this movement, whether it is for human/environmental/animal rights, education, healthcare, equity, sovereignty or simply balancing people with concepts of power and love. Kahane is someone who shares a vision universal to all those who believe in a greater good, those who believe in positive social change. His front just happens to be for the privileged. His work for social change is a stepping stone, and I believe the next step is to connect with poor communities and not only write journals and books about them, but to actually help people in these communities to publish their own books, come up with their own writings and let them tell their stories. Kahane seems like a nice guy, but I have had enough of his voice. We have all heard enough of the privileged; their voice has always dominated society. It is time for people like Kahane to fund the storytelling of the disempowered.
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