Social Inclusion?
Is social inclusion the answer? I’m fascinated by a whole field of research that I’m just learning about, (it’s new to me but I feel like I know it b/c lived it) …
“Sociologists have observed that excluded classes of persons in many societies exhibit various undesirable patterns of behavior, including aggression, poor intellectual or academic performance, lack of pro-social behavior, self-destructive indulgences, and poor self-control. Our research suggests that these are not necessarily inner traits of society’s downtrodden, so much as normal reactions that all sorts of people exhibit when they find themselves to be excluded by others.” (Baumeister et al. 2007)
Passing the bar is great, but I continue to wonder whether and when I will feel like I “fit in” with “them” but now “them” is “me” and I still don’t really find myself wanting to belong.
What I’m realizing is that this is an old feeling. We all need acceptance. When we are not accepted, when we are not allowed access, when basic rights are denied, we have no motivation to participate. I have been wondering myself lately what would make the office, and the comforts of a full-time job worth it? Those who love me are urging me to take part in a system that I don’t fully buy into. But why don’t I buy into it?
Maybe if I knew that I could have it and not give up who I really am? Maybe if I knew that I would be accepted…not left behind or looked down upon for being different? The answer for most innovators, for those that feel like acceptance in the status quo is impossible is entrepreneurship. We do it our own way. This has been the informal approach I have been taking — and now it’s time to formalize it. I am forming a start up.
Practicing social entrepreneurship is a way to participate without needing to be accepted by a system that I have not fully bought into yet. More to come about this venture in the next month or two…