A Love Note to Those Resistant to Change

image of Tony Kushner from Columbia 250.

I'm a fan of change, generally....although too much, even for me, is not fun.  But I don't mind the odd chaos.  I don't mind the odd exhuming of absolutely everything that stagnates below the surface.  I think change is absolutely necessary, and I think that generally North Americans are overly resistant to change.  There's too much stagnation going on.

What happens when water stagnates?  It loses its best dynamic qualities, it stops supporting a wide variety of life, it then becomes a complete environmental hazard.  It becomes a breeding ground for a whole host of diseases, bacteria, parasites. 

What happens when the mind or psyche stagnates?  Pretty much the same thing.

Obviously too much change is not always the best way to solve the problem of stagnation, but I do think a balance can be achieved.  And what makes so many people and so many groups and so many nations resistant to change?  What is it within us that kicks and screams against change?  If I were to offer some kind of psychoanalytic answer, I might say something about death.  When we take out all the causal links between the word change and the word death, we come up with a simple equation: change=death.  Death is the ultimate change.  What are people commonly afraid of and don't often come to terms with?  Death.  Hmmm, lots more can be said on this, but I'll spare you.  For now.  :)   

Tony Kushner, American playwright, often deals with the theme of change.  He states in the Introduction to a play called *Caroline, or Change*:

This play comes from sorrow, from anger and grief, and also from hope learned from history, from recent history, which has shown us both the terrors and also the pleasures of change, which has shown us that change, progress, is difficult, uneven, uncertain, but also absolutely possible.  Sorrow, anger and grief, our tragedies, shouldn't blind us to our victories.  The failure of this country to address racism and poverty, domestically and globally, has been a terrible failure, its cost incalculable, and the worst consequences have not yet arrived.  And yet the African-American civil rights movement changed not only America but the entire world.  A new model of human liberation was born of that movement, of that moment, a model that oppressed people around the world have embraced.  And the struggle goes on.  Jewish-Americans, with their deep understanding of the vital role of the federal government in protecting minority rights, with their deep commitment to social and economic justice, were and are critically important participants in the struggle. [...]  If that epic struggle did not accomplish everything it intended, it breached the wall of oppression, and through that breach the future is pouring in.

I have collected more direct Kushner quotes on change, but I'll have to search for them.

Comments

[Doktor Holocaust]

you said: "What happens when water stagnates? It loses its best dynamic qualities, it stops supporting a wide variety of life, it then becomes a complete environmental hazard. It becomes a breeding ground for a whole host of diseases, bacteria, parasites.

What happens when the mind or psyche stagnates? Pretty much the same thing."

but all those diseases, bacteria, and parasites ARE a wide variety of life, and in fact are a part of the wider variety supported by the water the whole time.

besides, without those little critters, the medium sized ones would have nothing to eat.

[vesper]

Um no....those are disgusting things....yes good....with BALANCE....not festering and multiplying and killing other lifeforms.

[Devil Mood]

Doktor Holocaust has a point - if it wasn't for microscopical creatures we wouldn't be here today. ;)
But I get your point.
I'm thinking how I can be progressive politically and socially and, at the same time, be so resistant to change personally...it's strange.
Anyway, resistance -> fear -> conservatism, etc...

[vesper]

when water stagnates, one of the biggest diseases that arises is malaria. when water stagnates, also, any toxins in the water become more concentrated, and thus more dangerous. of course we need small organisms...my god!!! my post was not an argument for getting rid of them!!!!

[Vanessa]

I prefer to take your words a little less literally and I agree there's way too much stagnation going on. Plucking up the courage to change. Individually or collectively. Big job. But so necessary :)

[kristen]

I have a really hard time with change even though I embrace the ideal of it all. I like what you're saying here though - especially since I'm terrified of death.

[Doktor Holocaust]

but... what if we want to tilt the balance? what if the other lifeforms are overpopulated and mucking up the water with their own offal anyway and bringin ti all on themselves and we just wanna sell some front-row seats to the apocalypse?

"Life IS funny, and since death is an inherent part of life, it is intrinsically funny when people drop dead." - Brian Clevinger, "8 Bit theatre" episode 481 at nuklearpower.com