Escape the Unfair/Corrupt?

Today’s class, (well it’s 12am, so technically, yesterday’s class) is still spinning through my head. I am not a silent person, and I can’t stop wondering why I was so quiet during class. The answer I’ve come up with is, that although I’m not a silent person, I definitely am a fixating one, as in I have a fixating personality. When I hear something that strikes me differently, I fixate and think-it to death, and thinking something to death takes a lot of effort- how could I have strength to speak?

So now that I have had some time to let my fixation formulate, I can talk. The fatherly advice froggie generously shared with us yesterday got me thinking. I’m paraphrasing, so forgive me, but it was something to the effect of, “you don’t have to work in a corrupt system.” I don’t think the word corrupt was used, but it was something like that.  This advice struck me as odd, because it is the opposite of what I’ve been taught, that is not a judgment on the advice, it’s just a noting of difference.

I’ve always been taught that systems will always be corrupt for somebody. Somebody will always view them as unfair because not everybody in a system can flourish, there has to be a balance, and people who are on the lower side of that balance will no doubt complain, being human tendency, and yell corruption. Instead, I’ve always been taught that instead of remedying a system into its utopic form, it is more productive to tweak the system in your favor. And by favor, I don't mean your selfish desire, your favor could be your desire to see others succeed. After all, isn’t it a greater testimony of strength to tweak a system from a new perpective, than it is to create a new system all together? Anyone can create a system? Anyone can start a school or a business, but that doesn’t make it valuable.  I feel that you cannot escape working in a corrupt system and that that is not a bad thing but instead a challenge and an opportunity for growth.

You can take an unfair system and bend it so you can succeed, challenge yourself to make the best of the bad. Scrapping and starting over is easy, not an opportunity for growth as I see it.  I should clarify that by tweaking or bending, I don’t mean being dishonest or unjust. Systems are not completely rigid. If they were we’d be living in a computer program. There are ways to bend and tweak circumstances in your favor, or in the favor of those people or organizations you’d like to see succeed. To me that’s not being selfish. For example, hospital policies on insurance basically suck. If you’re poor, too bad. Let’s say your loved one is hurt and without insurance. Instead of rewriting that hospital’s insurance policy, I find it a larger testimony of will if you were able to find a legal way around the law. In that way, if people keep challenging the system, bending it and competing against it, laws will progressively get  “better” or more “just”. Competition in my mind can result in great results.  This sounds pessimistic in ways, but as of now that’s how I see it. Ask me again in a few weeks, no doubt my answer will be different.