At the end of the First Intercontinental Encounter in the Selva Lacandona, the Zapatistas said at one point, “We are not here to change the world, something that is very difficult, next to impossible. We are here to create a whole new world.” This looks very idealistic, romantic, not real, not pragmatic. Thinking time again with them about this, we have discovered that they are absolutely right and that this position is very realistic. To change the reality, it is very difficult, next to impossible. To create something radically new is feasible. You can do that tomorrow.
Please just think for a minute, let’s change the educational system in Mexico or in the United States. You can change the educational system? You can dedicate your whole life and the lives of your friends and your families and you will be a footnote in a textbook and nothing more. You cannot change that monster. But if you want to create a radically new thing, to learn whatever you want to learn beyond the system, you can create that tomorrow morning. You can immediately create something else, a different kind of situation.
This is the kind of thing about which we are thinking, “Yes, what we are trying to do is to create a whole new world and for this we need imagination. We need to invent that new world.”
– Gustavo Esteva, Mexican author, grassroots activist and “de-professionalized intellectual”
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