Top Down Or Bottom Up?

(Chatting more with a newcomer in a cafe.) (This follows on from two earlier Ruminations – What To Do and Dithering.)

“Tell me, what do you reckon? Change – what drives it? Where does it come from?

“What I mean is, is it top down or bottom up?

“Yeah, top down is what most people think. Governments and that. But I’ve read time and time again that governments are only reacting to, I suppose, responding to what the public wants.

“They like to give the impression that they’re leading, but they’re not. Not really.

“All countries? I don’t know. Perhaps it’s only true for democracies. I guess maybe dictatorships, dictators, can impose their own will. Then again though, people often accept dictators – like what they stand for.

“Yeah, so maybe you can’t even be a dictator if you’re not in tune with the public. Or, at least, with enough of the public.

“But, whatever … where we are, in a democracy, if pressure for change comes from the bottom up, then what creates that pressure?

“I don’t know. It’s difficult. It’s messy.

“And even if it’s bottom up, then the response is going to be coming from the people at the top.

“I mean, so, let’s say a lot of the public wants, I don’t know, free gizmos. But right now gizmos are illegal. The public might want them and might make a lot of noise about wanting them, but the government has to change the law to make them freebies. You see what I mean? The government still has to be involved.

“Yeah. Like I said, it’s difficult.”