Obama wants change. McCain wants change. Everyone wants change but me.
It is not so much that I am stuck in the what-is as I am deeply suspicion of the angst that drives - what-if.
The truth is - angst is as ubiquitous as air and being discontent is as natural as breathing. yet when you point out to someone that they just took a breath they look at you like you're an idiot, but if you remind them of their discontent, they flop on the ground with all the drama of a child, shrieking "NOTHING CAN BE WORSE THAN THIS!!".
It is in these times that human folly is born, and therefore wise to be leery of the big ideas that spring from the well of discontent rather than seep from the soil of incremental success.
Then again - we need to be mindful that our species was not born of being content. If that had been the case we would still be living in trees.
Millions of years ago, our ape ancestors were contently living in trees until one especially obnoxious and alienated teenager suddenly shrieked "TREES SUCK". In an instant our entire species realized its tree-angst and abandoned the branches to walk upright on Terra Firma.
What history does not record is the immediate aftermath of that event -- the subsequent loss of half the population to a pride of extremely pleased lions.
The point being there is nothing inherently wrong with ideas, nor with change but there is something about the giddyness of new ideas that tempt people to skip the testing phase.
To be honest, our more conservative cousins, the ones who stayed in the trees, didn't fair much better because even though they adapted and evolved quite nicely, half their population now resides in metal cages not far from the display of extremely displeased lions.
So with all due respect to Stanley Kubrick, it was not the invention of tools that made apes into humans rather it was the big idea of testing big ideas that guaranteed our success as a species.
Perhaps I feel this way about change because I live in Minnesota rather than on one of the hipper coasts. Ideas take a long time to get to here, and by the time we try on the latest fads, they are thread-bare enough to easily see through.
Besides I am old enough to remember the 1970's, and anyone who lived through that era understands the fallacy of "anything can be better than this" thinking.
The 1970's were an era when it became fashionable to throw out the rule book and in doing so we realized why we had rules in the first place.
What else could explain: streaking, helmet hair, powder blue leisure suits, disco, and rust colored shag carpeting?
Or ABBA?
Or the Chevrolet Vega, Ford Pinto or American Motors Pacer?
Or the weird clothing colors that could only be recreated by a two year old fiddling with the contrast button on a television set.
So what should we do in this year of political change?
There are two things not to do.
One would be to throw caution to the wind and embrace big ideas - especially untested ones, like the way so many people in the 1970's got the idea to making an outrageous profit by flipping houses with money borrowed from a shaky S&L.
That bubble took a long time to pop, but then slow motion disasters are the mark of big bad ideas.
The other thing not to do -- is anything the Europeans do.
Not after ABBA.
© Greg Schiller, 2008
Author: Greg Schiller
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Comments: 44
"They always say time changes things,
but you actually have to change them yourself."
--Andy Warhol
the metric system is overrated anyway .......Hehehe!
i love your sense of humor (or if was not meant to be funny i got to stop drinking )
Of course Greg I think the new ideas take so long to get here in Minnesota because many are still convinced that there's snow and cold here year round. And they are afraid of the cold so they stay away. lol
Staying the 'Same' because we are afraid if 'Change' is suicide.
Greg, good post.
Sure, but then benjamin, it all depends what business you are in. In fashion, it is easy to change embarrasing little mistakes, in aircraft maintenance, not so easy.
Maybe that comes from cringing at all the memories stupid things they did while giddy for change.
Hmmmmm,
Here is a hilarious true example of a bad big idea. The Atlantic Monthly July 1926: The Russian Effort to Abolish Marriage
During the real estate flipping bubble we were told "the rules have changed". They hadn't!
The people who bought "change" paid with their life savings in many cases. I don't accept "change" or "reform" as valid outcomes. They are nebulous concepts that cannot be analyzed. (Gee, vague promises from politicians - surprise, surprise!).
Modernism is defined as seeking change for the sake of change. Based on the current political mood, our country is still in a modernist era, and hasn't learned anything from the recent economic disasters.
We are heading toward a political disaster ... no matter which candidate wins.
Not to mention that women wouldn't have the right to vote, without change.
African Americans would still be discriminated against, and segregated from society.
Change is a normal part of life, and needs to be embraced.
That being said...
I love your article!
Ten for you.
I so love humor.
In those 1970's, a quarter of Congress were centrists, like the Republicans we in Minnesota sent to Congress. Change is sometimes nostalgia.
Small government politicians in the 1970's never promoted automation for the public sector. Change is sometimes new technology.
I found a toad in my wooded backyard this Saturday, as an indicator of the type of environment I would like to pass on, sometimes change is not wanted.
Of course it is Jim, but then so is folly.......remember Jesse Ventura? :)
Exactly.
There was a lot of fun stuff in the 1960's......but then you had to go to work and the workplace in the 1960's was not a lot of fun.
Remember big open bays of endless rows of gray desks? (Shudder!!)
I saw change coming before Bush was selected. I feared it would be bad. It was, and is, and getting worse. It going to get worse still. I want to have people around who are adaptable.
So you see the changes you point to were corrections of early mistakes. Don't you think it would have been easier NOT to have made those mistakes in the first place?
I think one of the big mistakes of recent politics........is the loss of our sense of humor and humanity.
"there is something about the giddyness of new ideas that tempt people to skip the testing phase."
Amen, brother.
That said, I do think we have to get rid of the "toxic assets." Not change but stewardship of the system that nurtures us all but is fragile particularly now.
I see (from our apartment and it's small), various wild animals; racoons, bunnies, skunks and deer - things that we're supposed to just ignore, that got there in the first place due to excessive building of huge homes in our village of trees and farmland. Where is their home now? Change is not always good.
I almost feel sorry (and I do mean almost) for whomever gets elected to the office of President because all the changes that are wanted, take time - a heck of a lot more than the 4 or 8 years that one could be a President. Unless they change that too.
Marilyn
...I still see a constant theme in your writing.
About that blue suit...
Think you might consider a change?