Definition: supravert (verb), supraverter (noun), supraversive (adj.) Taking the high
road to social change. To affect change through positive, inclusive, honest, forthright, and especially joyous means. Unlike its counterpart, subvert, which seeks to affect change by circumventing the process of acceptance, and undercutting others, supraverts seek the high road to change through buy-in of the person(s) receiving the
force of the change.
Usage: The student's supraversive editorial on the importance of nutrition in schools was so well accepted by the school administration that they have voted to allow students to choose what foods should be offered in the cafeteria.
Other examples: if
one sought to convert the masses from an agrarian
based economy to an industrial
based economy, a plausible subversive tactic would be to threaten the populace with the certitude of starvation. Whereas a supraversive tactic would seek to incorporate the needs of the
people in the process of changing from farming practices to factories by listening to concerns, explaining the benefits of the change and allowing the populace to voluntarily choose the better option. On a personal level it might mean writing a supraversive letter to a friend, with humor rather than belittling them for taking a job at Chevron instead of the
local Farmer's Market.
The motivation behind using a supraversive tactic is that the end result is more often successful, and the effect lasts longer than a negative approach. Additionally, we all know from
Mary Poppins'
wisdom that a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down.
supraversive is sometimes misspelled with the prefix "super" instead of "
supra," meaning "above" or "beyond." antonym: subvert.
