Propensity to Self Subversion Applications to Human Development
People are limited only by their imagination. Oliver and Wilbur Wright believed they could build a machine that could fly, and they did. Albert Einstein thought he could split atoms, and he did. Copernicus said the Earth is not the center of the universe, and he was right. Claude Monet broke all the rules of painting and began producing work that many considered sloppy because they were outside the lines, and Impressionism was born. Each one of these people exhibited a propensity to self-subversion.
Although self-subversion can most probably be traced as a reference to the theory expounded by economist Albert Hirschman, applications of thinking beyond the boundaries of an established framework is the stuff of invention, innovation and radical thought. Very few of the greatest people in history were considered “players.” Many of them were considered eccentric, even crazy, by the society in which they lived. Some became shunned and were outcasts, until later events proved them right and society wrong. When Walt Disney decided animated figures could become more than a 10-minute cartoon and produced a full-length animated feature, people thought he was crazy. Today Snow White and Cinderella are still being watched by children and Disney theme parks are all over the world.
All inventions and innovations began as voyages of curiosity and discovery, fueled by imagination and compulsion, and given substance by passion and persistence. It began with a “what if…” These are considered events and accomplishments that could happen to only an exceptional few. But human development is limited only by the boundaries set by the person for himself. Self-subversion is a technique in which a person turned himself inside out and back again. It requires the minute examination of routines, manners, beliefs and goals and a rigorous casting about of what direction one should take. Complacent people tend to go with the flow, maintain the status quo. These are also the people who are least prepared for life’s surprises and most badly shaken by unexpected developments that people have no contingency plans for.
Self-subversive people are perennially prepared because they are not confined by self-imposed limits. Anything goes for them and they welcome change because it prevents them from getting into a rut. Most people live in the rut because it is the easiest thing to do. They live but they are not alive. They are shielded from the best and worst of life experiences and end up living a mediocre life.
A well-examined life is a life that goes beyond what family and society prescribes. If you are the son of a successful lawyer with a lucrative practice and you have no interest or passion in the legal profession, but you go into it any way because it is expected and easy, then you have just wasted a life, your own. It may bring riches and prestige and material success, but it will be a wasted life nevertheless.
However, self-subversion does not automatically mean different or radical. A person who has examined and questioned his own life may find that he is exactly who he wants to be, where he desires to be and what he needs to be, in which case it is a well-lived life. The point is self-development will only be possible if one is willing to understand that there are many paths to happiness and fulfillment, and they may not always be the path well trodden. It may be that there will be conflict between what society expects and what you want, and that taking control of your life may lead to some disagreeable consequences. But it is important for each person to discover the self in the clearest light possible because this is the way to a fulfilled life and effective self-development.
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