You are the system

For many people, science fiction is just a techy genre of action and gadgets. For me, it has always been about deep philosophy. All the way from Isaac Asimov Foundation series to Marvel Spiderman. It plays on the future what-if scenarios and how we would relate to them as humans. This capability of imaginative exploration of where we are heading, is lacking today both with politicians and with companies. But also in terms of making positive future stories in literature and in our own daily narratives.

One seemingly banal dialogue in the second episode - Attack of the clones - where Anakin and Padmé sit on a meadow, pinpoints the core of the issue in our predicament with the climate crisis. We seem paralyzed in how to make change happen. (Remember Anakin becomes Darth Vader) This is how it goes (https://youtu.be/WNSq5wYdwb0?si=WTlOusZQKIcdFmGj&t=40)

Anakin: "I don't think the system works."

Padmé: "How would you have it work?"

Anakin: "We need a system where the politicians sit down and discuss the problem, agree what's in the best interest of all the people, and then do it."

Padmé: "The trouble is that people don't always agree."

Anakin: "Well, then they should be made to."

Padmé: "By whom? Who's going to make them?"

Anakin: "I don't know. Someone."

Padmé: "You?"

Anakin: "Of course not me."

Padmé: "But someone."

Anakin: "Someone wise."

Padmé: "Sounds an awful lot like a dictatorship to me."

Anakin: "Well, if it works."

Frustrating as it is, I also sometimes dream of a strong leader that would just set everything straight with a snap of their fingers. But the question is relevant, who should that be? And is not always the outcome in stories that the good benevolent leader turns dark when they get too much power? Democracy is super frustrating and slow, but probably necessary not to put all power in one hand. And in a democracy, politicians are not leaders, they are followers. They follow and make decisions, based on what they perceive their voters' mandate can carry.

I am a trained engineer (Swedish civilingenj?r) and marketing major (Swedish civilekonom), and I have spent most of my professional life developing new products, services and driving business development and innovation. This all boils down to a certain set of tools and systems. But also a number of myths of what is reality (as opposed to beliefs made up by man). For example basic theories like that markets supply goods based on needs (behov), whereas the reality is that they supply goods based on desires (beg?r). As a marketeer, you know you can influence desires, that is what the game is about.

In a recent study at Lund University (https://lucris.lub.lu.se/ws/portalfiles/portal/147066815/Rapport_202301.pdf), professor Anselmsson (who happened to live at my student dorm over 30 years ago 8-D), concluded that many companies do not succeed in marketing a position in sustainability. They need to understand how the consumer attitudes and drivers coincide with the regular drivers of sales of the brand (e.g. quality, price, status, ease-of-use, range of selection) combined with any of the UN 17 sustainability goals. In other words, brands like ?nglamark would be well served by an environmental brand position, whereas H&M would not benefit from that but should rather go for a message based on fair working conditions. This is a very instrumental view.

A famous quote from Henry Ford is "if I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses". And one of my earliest reads in innovation was Harvard professor Clayton Christensen's "the innovators dilemma" that states that companies' innovation challenge is that they listen too much to their customers. This leads me to conclude that companies are not leaders either, they are followers. They invest in what they believe customers want or need (that is the company inner narrative and motivator), but forget they are instrumental in designing what customers desire (that is what they actually do). The desire design if for buying more, not right. The question of who leads whom between marketing and consumers becomes quite blurry.

This little exploration of thoughts, leads me to the conclusion that you cannot rely on the "system", politicians or companies to fix the predicament we are in. They are not leaders towards a future that we desire, they are followers. The system is not something that exists on its own, that you happen to be in. You are the system. No matter how frustrating and meaningless it may seem, you need to realize this. It is easy to get stuck in mental patterns or myths, that it does not matter what 1 out of 9 billion people does. It does! Read Maria Wolrath S?derbergs report about barriers in our own inner narratives. (https://www.sou.gov.se/contentassets/e66f5e3eaaed43ddb8ae786a452eed39/tankestrukturer-som-hindrar-omstallning-och-hur-vi-kan-overkomma-dem.pdf)

All innovation and change I have met during my years was not due to a system, it happened despite of the system and because of people. People who wanted something, and even might have disobeyed orders or done something nobody asked for (skunk works). There are many companies doing good things. But it is not the company doing it. It is some people in them that do it, that make it happen. Meaning that, what each and every person cares about and does, makes a difference. So fundamentally, it boils down to "who are you?".

To round this up and paraphrase another science fiction story. In Spiderman 2, the teacher in Peter Parker's class talked about literature. She pointed to a theory that all great literature is based on very few and the same basic stories. But that in fact all stories are based on the same question "who are you?". That is the fundamental question that intrigues us. You read and are moved in different ways of stories and characters, because it is a way for you to make sense of yourself. What would you have done? What characters do you appeal to? Which are you appalled by? What does it mean to you? How would you relate to it? How would it define you?

My Saturday philosophical expose, lands in the two keys to the future. System and identity. The system is not the truth and not a law of nature. The system will not fix anything. It is made up. You are the system. And who are you? What identity do you aspire to, that leads to a better and sustainable future? And what kind of actions would then become natural to you in your everyday life, in your profession and where you engage the time you have on this planet? What you do matters.

You. Matter.