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I didn't even have to SAY it and you already know... how smart are y'all?
It's true. The one thing we all hate is... is... I can barely type it... CH-CHANGE!
It doesn't matter what type of change it is (and I'm NOT referring to Danish Krone or the Greek Drachma). No, people dislike the mussing about of their precious schedules, the unexpected adjustment of the expected.
People LIKE to write something on their calendars and have it still be true when that date rolls around. It keeps us in sync, makes us feel as though all is good and right with the world.
Even when NOTHING is right with the world.
That's the odd part-- people would prefer to keep their schedules of distasteful activities than saunter up to a big pile of 'I dunno', even though that pile promises to be better.
It's like that contestant on Let's Make A Deal who will stick with a year's supply of anchovy paste they won from what was in the box rather than going for Monte Hall's mystery offer behind door number three, because it might be worse than anchovy paste.
And here's the funniest part-- even though I describe, in acute detail, how much better this new world would be... you're still uncertain! Your thought pattern is this: "I have a pile of pennies, and this guy is promising me a pile of hundred dollar bills... I'd better keep the pennies, because I already have them, and the bill thing... well, that's uncertain."
What's that old proverb? A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Seems like EVERYBODY'S following that one! Well, except for the hunter, who has his eyepiece trained on those other two as we speak. A quick POW POW and then there's THREE in the hand.
Seems like EVERYBODY'S following that one! Well, except for the hunter, who has his eyepiece trained on those other two as we speak. A quick POW POW and then there's THREE in the hand.What does the hunter know that most of us don't? That a week's worth of meat costs no more than a coupla bullets?
No. And might I say, creepy. No, what the hunter knows is that if you don't reach out to get it, you're gonna miss it. They have modeled their behavior around that fact. If they don't, then they starve. No hunting, no food. It's survival.
A survival trait which has apparently been bred out of us 'higher' lifeforms, the city folk. We don't just 'reach out to get it' any more. No, now we just purchase.
Hungry? Buy food.
Bored? Buy entertainment.
Horny? Buy sex.
Suffering crushing discouragement by the life-sucking society you live in? Umm... what can you do about that? I guess you could... buy more food, entertainment and sex?
OR
You could see what's behind door number three, and maybe change the world while you're at it. This Perfect World thing, you know, it will creep up on all of us, quietly and with purpose; one family at a time, one community, one town, one city at a time, until we're all doing it. Then it's DONE.
SOMEBODY just has to be the first on your block to swallow your fear of the unknown. Is it going to be YOU?
Will YOU make the CHANGE?
Copyright 2009 Bruce Ian Friedman
Hi Bruce,
ReplyDeleteGood posting regarding fear of change. In fact I believe that this applies to the western world in general. The complex systems there are finely tuned to each other and most "progress" is actually quite superficial - check out the developments in the automotive industry over the last 20 years for example.
There is a lot of talk of change in politics of course, but little happens for fear of upsetting powerful lobbyists. In reality a President needs 3 terms of office just to make some minor adjustments to the status quo - unless there is a war or some crisis. In that case changes can be pushed through quickly because convincing arguments can be provided. That is what is really missing in politics - collective belief that something needs to be done.
It's funny, although one tends to fear changes, when they happen things usually turn out all right in the end.
Thanks for your time.
K. Wallis