T Time: Ep. 10

Change is unavoidable. Without it, we would have never been created. We’d be living dull, dumb lives like animals. We wouldn’t have great food, funny TV shows, or incredible devices to engage with the world. Yet, some people define themselves as resistors of change. Those same people use electricity, want vaccines or other pharmaceuticals. They want increasing profits, more children, fewer taxes, amended legislation, and so on. Popular definitions of the term “conservative” usually state affiliation with a group that opposes change and adheres to traditional values or lifestyles. But did people 150 years ago drive cars? Did great-granddad use a mobile phone? Did they have birth records? Did historical people do much of anything like what we do now? Not really, no. Sure, some change can have negative consequences, but overall, there are improvements over time. Maybe entropy has manifest in social life over time, and maybe it would have been better had that not occurred, but maybe there are trade-offs. Maybe in order to have a large group of people who make once-impossible discoveries and inventions (e.g. life saving medical treatments, communications technologies, spaceships), there has to be room to think freely, to disagree, to defy the norms and customs of others. Maybe innovation isn’t so bad. In fact, conservatives, liberals, and independents alike embrace change in their consumption of goods and services of our modern era. Our continued participation in modern life is ipso facto evidence of our acquiescence to change, and that change is a good thing, but maybe more importantly, that change is unstoppable so we might as well accept it.