Posts about changehttps://mithrandi.net/categories/change.atom2018-05-19T08:14:04ZmithrandiNikolaSlipping Awayhttps://mithrandi.net/blog/2009/07/slipping-away/2009-07-14T14:17:30Z2009-07-14T14:17:30Zmithrandi<div>
<blockquote><p>And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking;<br>racing around to come up behind you again.<br>The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older;<br>shorter of breath and one day closer to death.</p>
<p>— Pink Floyd, <em>Time</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Surviving change is perhaps one of the hardest things to do, and yet it may be one of the most important abilities to master for a species, idea, movement, company, or even an individual in order to be assured of survival. The issue of changing "with the times" is often explored in fantasy / sci-fi fiction involving immortal beings such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armand_%28The_Vampire_Chronicles%29">vampires</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Daneel_Olivaw">robots</a>, or even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_MacLeod">sword-wielding immortals from the highlands of Scotland</a>. In Stephen King's <em>Dark Tower</em> series, the gunslinger Roland Deschain describes his world as having moved on; and while this may have occurred in a more dramatic fashion than most beings on Earth are likely to experience, the failure of much that once existed in Roland's world is still reflected in the pattern of our own world.</p>
<p>One of the key ingredients of the human life form is the ability to dream, to hope, and to otherwise plan for a future, however vaguely. Following up on those dreams and plans involves a varying amount of risk, but the possibility of equal or greater rewards is always there to compensate; being risky and daring along some axis is unavoidable in the pursuit of great things.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, over time, these dreams lose their relevance, becoming fruitless pipe dreams. As time slips inexorably onwards, the reality of life diverges more and more from the dream path until the dream becomes unattainable, or even undesirable. If one clutches to these faded dreams, they too will be dragged further and further away from reality, losing touch as they go; this is a trap that must be avoided in order to survive.</p>
<p>As humans, we carry around a tremendous amount of emotional and intellectual baggage. Of course, a large quantity of this baggage is absolutely essential; without any knowledge whatsoever, the human mind would be a pointless empty vessel. The difficulty is in discerning which items of baggage are useful, and which are not; since we can't figure this out, we just keep absolutely everything, accumulating an ever-growing collection. Eventually the weight of the baggage is so great that we are unable to take even one step further; and so there we remain, as the world slowly passes us by, leaving us to fade away in the emptiness that is left behind.</p>
<p>To survive change, one needs to truly accept that the world moves on. One may strive and struggle as hard as possible to control the direction it moves in, but the passage of time is something that ultimately cannot be reversed. Not all change is for the better — in fact, much of it may be for the worse — but once all is said and done, refusing to accept this change merely disconnects you from the world, ensuring that you will never again influence it.</p>
<p>The past holds many lessons that we might do well to rediscover and revive. One may often be tempted to dig up the corpses of old ideas, and revive them through some feat of necromantic sorcery, but such an endevour can only result in a doomed Frankenstein-like monster with no chance of survival. Take anything out of the environment or context that provides the ingredients necessary for it to live, and it will have no hope of survival; in addition, the new environment will have its own peculiar strengths and advantages, which need to be considered and taken advantage of for maximal effect.</p>
<p>Recognising and accepting the changing world is but the first lesson in surviving change, but it is a critical lesson to learn; ignore it at your own peril.</p>
</div><div>
<blockquote><p>And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking;<br>racing around to come up behind you again.<br>The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older;<br>shorter of breath and one day closer to death.</p>
<p>— Pink Floyd, <em>Time</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Surviving change is perhaps one of the hardest things to do, and yet it may be one of the most important abilities to master for a species, idea, movement, company, or even an individual in order to be assured of survival. The issue of changing "with the times" is often explored in fantasy / sci-fi fiction involving immortal beings such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armand_%28The_Vampire_Chronicles%29">vampires</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Daneel_Olivaw">robots</a>, or even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_MacLeod">sword-wielding immortals from the highlands of Scotland</a>. In Stephen King's <em>Dark Tower</em> series, the gunslinger Roland Deschain describes his world as having moved on; and while this may have occurred in a more dramatic fashion than most beings on Earth are likely to experience, the failure of much that once existed in Roland's world is still reflected in the pattern of our own world.</p>
<p>One of the key ingredients of the human life form is the ability to dream, to hope, and to otherwise plan for a future, however vaguely. Following up on those dreams and plans involves a varying amount of risk, but the possibility of equal or greater rewards is always there to compensate; being risky and daring along some axis is unavoidable in the pursuit of great things.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, over time, these dreams lose their relevance, becoming fruitless pipe dreams. As time slips inexorably onwards, the reality of life diverges more and more from the dream path until the dream becomes unattainable, or even undesirable. If one clutches to these faded dreams, they too will be dragged further and further away from reality, losing touch as they go; this is a trap that must be avoided in order to survive.</p>
<p>As humans, we carry around a tremendous amount of emotional and intellectual baggage. Of course, a large quantity of this baggage is absolutely essential; without any knowledge whatsoever, the human mind would be a pointless empty vessel. The difficulty is in discerning which items of baggage are useful, and which are not; since we can't figure this out, we just keep absolutely everything, accumulating an ever-growing collection. Eventually the weight of the baggage is so great that we are unable to take even one step further; and so there we remain, as the world slowly passes us by, leaving us to fade away in the emptiness that is left behind.</p>
<p>To survive change, one needs to truly accept that the world moves on. One may strive and struggle as hard as possible to control the direction it moves in, but the passage of time is something that ultimately cannot be reversed. Not all change is for the better — in fact, much of it may be for the worse — but once all is said and done, refusing to accept this change merely disconnects you from the world, ensuring that you will never again influence it.</p>
<p>The past holds many lessons that we might do well to rediscover and revive. One may often be tempted to dig up the corpses of old ideas, and revive them through some feat of necromantic sorcery, but such an endevour can only result in a doomed Frankenstein-like monster with no chance of survival. Take anything out of the environment or context that provides the ingredients necessary for it to live, and it will have no hope of survival; in addition, the new environment will have its own peculiar strengths and advantages, which need to be considered and taken advantage of for maximal effect.</p>
<p>Recognising and accepting the changing world is but the first lesson in surviving change, but it is a critical lesson to learn; ignore it at your own peril.</p>
</div>Denial; realizationhttps://mithrandi.net/blog/2009/01/denial-realization/2009-01-09T17:16:21Z2009-01-09T17:16:21Zmithrandi<div>
<blockquote><p>I have tasted of the fruit,<br>and it's opened up my eyes;<br>it's given me a thirst,<br>that's so hard to satisfy;<br>drink from juicy lips,<br>delicious in a kiss,<br>allow yourself.</p>
<p>— Infected Mushroom, <em>Illuminaughty</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Fear of change is a common human affliction. Some fear change in the world around them, because they do not know whether they will be able to survive in a world that is different to the one they now live in. Some fear change in all things, because they fear that the change may be for the worse, rather than the better. Others fear intellectual change; that is, a change in their thinking, in their mind. This fear stems from a fear of losing one's identity; and of course, the accompanying fear that should such a change occur, they would no longer be able to understand why the change is good or bad, or perhaps even realise that any change has occurred.</p>
<p>Such fear is certainly not baseless; it can be truly terrifying to observe the downward spiral of someone afflicted with a psychological or neurological disease that slowly tears apart what was once a person, while the individual thus afflicted is almost oblivious to the process. Then there are forms of "brainwashing", or forced intellectual change; people hear of things like the so-called "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome">Stockholm syndrome</a>" (which, incidentally, is not a real medical term), and brainwashing through the use of psychotropic drugs and mental torture. Thus, it is perhaps not such a great leap from fearing these extreme scenarios, to fearing any kind of intellectual change at all.</p>
<p>However, down this path lies many dangers. First and foremost are the consequences of being unable to correct incorrect views that one holds; you need no longer worry about changing from correct beliefs to incorrect beliefs, but at the same time, any incorrect beliefs you hold will continue to mislead you, as you resist any attempts to change them. Then, too, there are the consequences of isolating yourself from others; even if you are, in fact, right, and they are wrong, you cannot hope to interact with them on anything more than a superficial level if you cannot at least understand their perspective, however incorrect it may be.</p>
<p>Thus, while I respect in some way those who seek to avoid intellectual change, I choose to embrace it fully. This does not mean that I buy into any hair-brained theory or belief that gets thrown my way. Any new ideas and concepts are carefully examined, tested, torn apart and put back together; but at the end of this process, if the new idea meets muster, then I will embrace it. Far from seeing this as "losing" myself, I feel that the new me is simply something greater than the old me; I don't discard the old beliefs or perspective as the new ones are embraced, I simply cut them out of the decision-making loop. Thus, I retain all of the previous awareness I had, but now it is augmented by new and different things.</p>
<p>I should, perhaps, stress the latter point; while some people seek to forget about painful memories or times of their life, to "put it behind them", I don't wish to do that. I don't wish to dwell on the past, but neither do I wish to discard the past, and lose the value of experiences. All of the pain, misery, suffering, and darkness is as much a part of me as the joy, love, peace, happiness, and light; to discard that is to discard part of who I am, and to become something less than I was before.</p>
<p>I urge those of you who fear change to, instead, embrace it, and release yourselves from that fear.</p>
</div><div>
<blockquote><p>I have tasted of the fruit,<br>and it's opened up my eyes;<br>it's given me a thirst,<br>that's so hard to satisfy;<br>drink from juicy lips,<br>delicious in a kiss,<br>allow yourself.</p>
<p>— Infected Mushroom, <em>Illuminaughty</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Fear of change is a common human affliction. Some fear change in the world around them, because they do not know whether they will be able to survive in a world that is different to the one they now live in. Some fear change in all things, because they fear that the change may be for the worse, rather than the better. Others fear intellectual change; that is, a change in their thinking, in their mind. This fear stems from a fear of losing one's identity; and of course, the accompanying fear that should such a change occur, they would no longer be able to understand why the change is good or bad, or perhaps even realise that any change has occurred.</p>
<p>Such fear is certainly not baseless; it can be truly terrifying to observe the downward spiral of someone afflicted with a psychological or neurological disease that slowly tears apart what was once a person, while the individual thus afflicted is almost oblivious to the process. Then there are forms of "brainwashing", or forced intellectual change; people hear of things like the so-called "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome">Stockholm syndrome</a>" (which, incidentally, is not a real medical term), and brainwashing through the use of psychotropic drugs and mental torture. Thus, it is perhaps not such a great leap from fearing these extreme scenarios, to fearing any kind of intellectual change at all.</p>
<p>However, down this path lies many dangers. First and foremost are the consequences of being unable to correct incorrect views that one holds; you need no longer worry about changing from correct beliefs to incorrect beliefs, but at the same time, any incorrect beliefs you hold will continue to mislead you, as you resist any attempts to change them. Then, too, there are the consequences of isolating yourself from others; even if you are, in fact, right, and they are wrong, you cannot hope to interact with them on anything more than a superficial level if you cannot at least understand their perspective, however incorrect it may be.</p>
<p>Thus, while I respect in some way those who seek to avoid intellectual change, I choose to embrace it fully. This does not mean that I buy into any hair-brained theory or belief that gets thrown my way. Any new ideas and concepts are carefully examined, tested, torn apart and put back together; but at the end of this process, if the new idea meets muster, then I will embrace it. Far from seeing this as "losing" myself, I feel that the new me is simply something greater than the old me; I don't discard the old beliefs or perspective as the new ones are embraced, I simply cut them out of the decision-making loop. Thus, I retain all of the previous awareness I had, but now it is augmented by new and different things.</p>
<p>I should, perhaps, stress the latter point; while some people seek to forget about painful memories or times of their life, to "put it behind them", I don't wish to do that. I don't wish to dwell on the past, but neither do I wish to discard the past, and lose the value of experiences. All of the pain, misery, suffering, and darkness is as much a part of me as the joy, love, peace, happiness, and light; to discard that is to discard part of who I am, and to become something less than I was before.</p>
<p>I urge those of you who fear change to, instead, embrace it, and release yourselves from that fear.</p>
</div>