“Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System” by Donella Meadows was a very impactful reading for me. At the end of the day, I think this is an article about problem-solving more than anything else. Being able to identify leverage points and who has power in different scenarios is  As a media scholar, my mind is immediately drawn to Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan is best known for his famous saying, “The medium is the message.” In other words, it’s not as much the contents and details of a book that are significant, it is the medium in which it is communicated that has a profound influence on how the world is understood. Meadows’ article is not about the specifics of the conflict itself, but how to recognize and find the leverage points and then find the proper channels for change. 

I by no means have refined political ideologies, so the different ways I think and understand topics are subject to a lot of change in the future. Currently, and over the past year as a personal experiment, I have been applying McLuhan’s ideology on media to politics to see how it impacts my understanding. For example, on a macro level, I am not concerned with the details that make a specific group marginalized, but concerned with the fact that they are marginalized in the first place. On a micro level, it is definitely something I am very concerned with because the details that dictate why people have been marginalized play a significant role in the type of person they are. Additionally, it dictates the type of support that I can potentially help give.

What reading Meadows’ article has changed about my understanding of politics is that the details that make certain groups marginalized are extremely important. This is because leverage points need to be found, but they are not easy to recognize. And even, “when we do discover the system’s leverage points, hardly anybody will believe us.” The key to initiating change is locating and recognizing leverage points. The people who understand the topic the best will likely be the ones who are able to discover the leverage points. In our government system, the complete lack of diversity significantly inhibits our decision-makers’ ability to find leverage points and create change. 

This unfortunately is only one layer. Meadows writes, “If you want to understand the deepest malfunctions of systems, pay attention to the rules, and to who has power over them.” Even if we do have people who are strong advocates, intelligent, and diverse thinkers, their impact can be completely stunted if they do not have control over the rules. THIS is the reason why voting is so important. The background, education, and integrity of who we allow to create the rules that dictate our society and those who have power over them should be of the utmost concern.

My conclusions may be elementary to some, but to arrive at this point from interpreting literature and using my own logic is important to me. It creates a stronger foundation for interpreting the world. However, these are foundations that I will try to always keep an open mind for ways to improve.