> The status quo is not the system, it's just one implementation of it.
A system is just one implementation -- and the status quo is the one implementation we have.
That's not to say that it can't be improved or that their aren't better alternatives -- but the idea that the status quo is not the system is deeply wrong.
It is not "deeply wrong," and you're making a category error. If as OP suggests, the system is politics, as in, "you're soaking in it," the status quo is the current and recent-history shape of the subset of politics that has evolved to this point in time, a particular configuration of values within the landscape of possible value systems we call "politics in general."
A system is just one implementation -- and the status quo is the one implementation we have.
That's not to say that it can't be improved or that their aren't better alternatives -- but the idea that the status quo is not the system is deeply wrong.