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Dr. Grier blogs about Narcissism and other current topics.>
Part Four -- Change
December 3, 2009
Change is not only accelerating, but large changes are more frequent. Large unanticipated changes that exceed our capacity to fully understand their consequences are called tectonic change. Why tectonic change? Because tectonic change transforms the world and the way people think and behave.
Tectonic change may announce its arrival with staggering impact. It may proceed rapidly and like falling rain gather momentum until it overwhelms its victims. Or it may proceed at a pace that goes unnoticed until it shakes the foundations of conventional wisdom. Often the impact of tectonic change is only visible when we “look back”.
You will recognize the tectonic changes and their impact in the following list:
• Nuclear weapons and the advent of the “Cold War”.
• The birth control pill, abortion on demand, and the aging of the Western world.
• Perestroika and the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
• Computers and the complete reorientation of the workplace, and the way people think about and organize and treat information.
• The conversion of all forms of recorded information into digital format using the identical technological basis — text, numeric, voice, sound, pictures, and video — and the invention of the Internet.
• The invention of the Internet and the merging of communications with information, to include the way it is shared through on-line media and social networking.
• The merging of communications with information and the slow demise of printed media.
• The ubiquity of digital media storage and the rise of on-line hacking that threatens intellectual capital and the security of proprietary and classified information.
• 9/11 and the changing nature of war.
• The changing nature of war and U.S. foreign policy.
• Wireless communications and the instantaneous exchange of any kind of information between any two ordinary people from any two points on the globe.
Let's look at change that affects all of us on a daily basis.
Computers, the Internet and wireless communications have led to the globalization of information and the proliferation of on-line media.
The globalization of information has transformed how people choose from where they get their news and how they view it. News sources are no longer selected by viewers because they are the most reliable or the most honest, or because they have the best and most complete coverage. Rather, people around the world are choosing their news sources because they broadcast in a particular language, are associated with a particular religious identity, or support a particular ideological or cultural orientation. Western values and views no longer dominate the International media. This fracturing of how people see world events portrayed by the media is made worse by the fact that people distrust news reported by sources other than their own.
The result? There is no longer a common view of what is true or not true, what is real or not real, what is accurate and what is not, what is moral and what is immoral, what is known and what is not known, or what is legal and what is illegal.
Each person is left to select and interpret the news according to his own personal tastes. This lack of consensus leaves people and their societies unable to articulate their convictions on fundamental issues that instead of uniting people divides them.
The ubiquity of news also exposes people to the travails of everyone regarding everything. A single missing child in the United States becomes a source of anxiety for 300 million Americans. A disagreement between a police officer and a prominent citizen serves as the basis for a comment by the president. Even the simplest oversights and instances of neglect become sources of concern for all of us.
Now add the burden of personal insecurity with the collapse of the global economy. Tectonic change has shaken our financial system with consequences that still are to be determined. Will I lose my job? Will I find a new one? Will the value of my house return? Will my life savings be enough so that I can retire? What are politicians doing with this crisis? Can I trust the people making decisions that will affect my economic wellbeing and that of my family?
And more change is on the way.
The U.S. postal service has lost its monopoly on the delivery of personal communications. Many in Generation Y may not have ever experienced the pleasure of going to the post office and mailing a card to a friend or relative. Theirs is a virtual world where information is temporary and disposable and is shared using a wireless device via the Internet.
People were created to cope with incremental change, not the kind of large, rapid change we’re seeing now. The transformation we are witnessing exceeds the capacity of most people to learn and adapt.
The result of trying to cope with rapid and unexpected change, change which lies beyond our control, leads to stress and ultimately affects the mental health of large numbers of people and those around them — including those in the workplace.
We are being dragged, whether we like it or not, into uncharted waters roiled by constant, rapid tectonic change.
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