A good example of a creative seizing of kairos is Gandhi's salt march of 1930. A protest of this sort was, I think, quite literally unimaginable to the British authorities. Its success came in part from this bold visionary stroke, partly from the way others spontaneously joined the march. In some very narrow sense it was a response to a tax on salt, yes. But it worked because it was more than a response. In creating a new reality of protest, the salt march refigured so many things: salt, taxes, colonialism, labor, gender (gathering salt was generally considered women's work), and so forth. (I'm relying, by the way, on my dim memory of a book I read about twenty years ago -- The Intimate Enemy by Ashis Nandy.)
But I forgot education, so, well...
Seriously, though, I was thinking of thesis-antithesis-synthesis.
A less salubrious (for me) example of kairos would be the UK fuel protests. Unexpected; used novel means; caught the national mood (of some--enough: those who felt they were being marginalised/ignored)...govt. frightened of a repeat; same thing threatened over other car issues: the car driver fought back!
Boo!
They used kairos.
Double boo!
My examples of possible kairos moments are two:
So...synthesis! And, yes, mushrooms! Mushrooms are good for kairos moments...
And my post is bent sideways...ach....! Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
