First--Kahane is a white male and although we don't know much about his family background or class, his is a privileged perspective. But does this invalidate the concepts or ideas that he is presenting and the work he is trying to do in the world?
As part of the dominant paradigm that holds a lot of power in the world, he is being reflective about this power on both an individual level and in his thinking about social change. His brand of social change doesn't come from his own actual hunger and thus has a synthetic quality to it that may or may not be truly effective. It is hard to understand this from a book and his talk of change labs etc. So while he may not be coming from a place of oppression himself, he is coming from a place of power and with an apparent desire to be part of a process aimed at empowering others. While we can't say his is the most effective approach, it is a lot better than being in part of the dominant paradigm and continuing to support the status quo. Whether or not we like his tone or his perspective, can we see value in the tools that he is presenting--the model of power and love as a way for thinking about the forces within ourselves and in the world. Are we creators or are we destroyers? Can we recognize and better "harness" these drives?
Begin to reflect a bit, using the text, on what you have experienced so far this semester and how you see this paradigm. Kahane writes, "Our capacity to address our toughest social challenges, depends on our willingness to admit we are part of, rather than apart from, the woundedness of our world" (132). Of course this is daunting and fear-producing, and all of you are only just starting your life journey. But, in a sense, Lynne and I are trying to provide a way to learn together how we might begin to address issues--we are doing this within the safety net of a class and maybe this issue still isn't real to you but the opportunity is real. Have you utilized your own generative power and love, even on an internal level? How might you move forward with what you know now? Is fear an issue? How can we step forward as individuals and as a group, in this class? How can we lead through the swampiness, through the process of having to move forward even though we can't see the way clearly? It is because we are trying to do something real that we don't have all the answers.
