Is change a constant?

I find it interesting to listen to people lament about how things have changed in their village, city or country (usually with the view that this change has been for the worst). I usually resist the temptation to answer, “Well fancy that, how dare it change without your permission”! Usually, that is.

Can we really expect things to stay the same? Is it reasonable or is the expectation at best a wistful romantic wish, at worst the height of irrationality? The idea that change is a constant, a continuous happening, is hardly new. The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus of Ephesus pointed this out around 500 B.C. In the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries the idea that change is not only a constant, but is speeding up has become a mantra of modernity. We are told that humankind during the past 100 years has had to handle more change, more novelty than during the rest of our species’ existence on this planet.

Modern astronomers and physicists have developed theories of waves, cycles, shocks, strings and trickles to explain the never-ending web of change that is the universe of which we are a part. Change is the norm. Our biological selves as well as our villages, towns, cities, countries, regions, world powers, solar systems are all in constant flux. Indeed the entire universe is constantly changing, emerging, evolving. In fact, for human beings the only time nothing changes is when we are dead – and who knows, that seemingly final state may simply be a gateway to a new merry-go-round.

It seems to me that the issue is not change. That is unavoidable, a fundamental structure of reality. The key thing is our mindset, whether we perceive change as good or bad, as threatening or challenging. Change happens willy-nilly. But we are able to “influence” it. So, while we can’t prevent change we can accept and encourage positive change and even try to nudge negative change into a more positive channel.

The way influence works is this. An individual can influence change in a small group or team, but no higher up the social chain. It takes a team or small group to influence change in an organisation. It takes organisations to influence change in a community. It takes communities to influence change in a region and regions to influence the nation. So, if you as an individual want to make a difference, then form or join a group and use the power of the group to influence the organisation of which it must be a part. And so it goes…

Of course our environment is changing! Everything else in the entire universe is – including our neighbourhoods and every individual in it. So, each of us has a choice: we can be positive participants in trying to create our own communal future, or we can sit on the sidelines watching and complaining as the waves, cycles and trickles pass by. If we choose the spectator route unfortunately we won’t avoid the atrophy that accompanies spectatorship and we shall run the risk of turning into fading fossils from a past that no longer exists. Worth considering, given the municipal elections that have just been concluded.  

Best wishes,

Randall (adapted from an article published in his Insight Story)