Top-Down to Bottom-Up

When there's a problem, the initial response many people have is to find someone or something to blame. It's often in those moments when uncertainty and fear cloud our better judgment and the people and things we think are the main causes are not actually the roots. In The Challenge for Africa, Wangari Maathai talks about how it's not entirely the government's fault for the state that certain parts of Africa are in. Yes, the politicians and other bureaucratic institutions have a greater influence on the overall standard of living, but ultimately, the fate of the continent falls in the hands of the general population themselves. A lot of times we'll hear newscasts about corrupt government officials and bad government policies and gloss over the fact that much of the problems actually originated from within society itself and not the government. In the case of farming in rural Africa, Maathai notes that the farmers were never taught properly how to prepare the land and are, in turn, ironically destroying fertile grounds in the process. She attributes this poor education to the government but also directs partial blame on the farmers. When we focus on the government being the puppeteers, we label the citizens as helpless and unable to fend for themselves. This gives people, like the farmer on the hillside, the wrong impression that their actions have little impact. What we should be thinking about instead is how the public can influence the government to bring about positive social change and do work for the benefit of the entire population. In this manner, we are flipping the top-down hierarchical pyramid and recreating it to be more bottom-up. Until the general public takes it seriously, the government cannot make much progress.