Avenue for Change and More - October minicolumn

*October is the anniversary issue of The LaSallian. Therefore, we invited past editors to share column space with us. My counterpart wrote about rallies. This is my part:

To the people who have joined rallies, I wish to understand one thing: the first thought that majority of these people think of when they get home, after a long and tiring day rallying on the streets. Although I had been to quite a few of these, my experience is not enough to teach me the answer.

Let me put it in another setting I call setting X: During a spiritually engaging evangelistic meeting, the pastor has “rekindled” in you the passion for God, and you stand up and proclaim, “Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!” Spirited, you get home and: A) your naughty sibling plays a nasty trick on you; B) your mother scolds you for being late; C) your friends invite you to watch an “exotic” movie; D) your father orders you to pray to Buddha. What comes into your mind?

Whether or not the willingness and initiative to change on a personal level exists in a person is reflected in this seeming triviality. Much more - this triviality is a moment of truth.

In the first half of the story for both settings, the person is in a group, and with others the little energies of individual people snowball into one behemoth of an emotion. The people initiate, or at least attempt to initiate, changes as a group. The collective drive the group generates is often enough to overshadow personal doubts and weaknesses.

But when one leaves the group, everything magically changes. The terms people within the group have used so naturally and matter-of-factly suddenly become taboo. I point the reader to case D of setting X, as this is the most evident scenario. Imagine saying “Holy Spirit” in front of your father. Try saying “I can’t pray to Buddha,” and you’d expect a lengthy sermon/debate.

When one is alone, the real world presents constraints that groups are not limited by. People are normally discouraged and revert to their old selves.

The same happens with people involved in rallies. If people maintain the same level of passion they had in rallies when they get home, then real change may not be farfetched.
So a rally may not be that bad.