What is it that makes us change? Evolve? Transition?
In my experience is the context always context…
Times are changing, people are changing, trends and buildings are changing, being recycled, and so are we as people. Our attitudes towards time as well as different episodes in our life makes us grow. But we need to change so that we don’t stay in time, and chose to progress. We need to be rupturistic (trend setter) to break with the routine, and with the already known stuff that we are so used to wear. We need something that takes our breath away, so that we feel unique and special again.
Change is inevitable... however, a couple of days ago watching the discovery channel, (something strange for me :P ) I got struck by the idea that there are tons of Amazonian tribes hidden in jungles that live under conditions that we used to live millions of years ago.. so why don’t they “evolve” (according to what we consider evolving in the technological, cultural, or globalized world) I am not saying that its wrong for them to keep their millennium culture intact. But it’s just an observation I made, considering that while they were building a house out of mud, in a parallel universe Thomas Edison was trying to create electrical light bulb, or while they were painting their bodies Louis Armstrong was walking on the moon (considering its actually a true fact) but then again, while they where dressing with animal fur, Coco Channel was inventing a new style, or Ford, creating the ford T line…these are tribes that happy in their cultural environment, live isolated and do not evolve in the same kind of way as global society does. Is it because of a resourceful reason, political, social, and geographical? Maybe they don’t know what’s beyond their tribe. Are we happier being ignorant? Or are we to scare to know what’s beyond our knowledge?
Another case that caught my mind was after I went and visit an Amish community. These are people that same as the Amazonia tribes live isolated, but they consciously isolate themselves from the global society due to beliefs that keep them happy in closed communities. So we need to change because our context pursues an evolution, or we just want to stay in a comfort zone. .. Where does evolution come from? In these cases I believe it’s a matter of choosing to change, choosing to be up to discovering what’s beyond out knowledge as an individual, as well as in a society. Is it good to evolve?
It’s a never ending debate, was the dolly sheep a positive evolution? Evolving does not always mean good, but it does give us a sense of progress and improvement. This debate comes not actually knowing in person how people in tribes live. I do have experience of Amish people but always as an outsider.. I haven’t spend more than a day in the community but I sure felt their culture of keeping themselves isolated from the world, made me realized whether I belong there, their tranquility, their peace.
So all in all, I believe we need to change, to progress, to evolve, and to learn from past mistakes. Why is history of much importance in school? Its not to fill in an hour of activity, but to make us conscious of our past, our present and have an idea of our future, so that we do not make same mistakes. Every situation is different, but still, change is inevitable, wisdom does not come with age, but that, depends according to the experiences, and our open minded view towards the world.
