The One Constant in a World Of Variables
Written by Douglas Castle and originally published in THE GLOBAL FUTURIST (http://theglobalfuturist.blogspot.com/)
I have a propensity to be riled by certain expressions. Three of them have especially bothered me since my childhood. They are:
1. "Hurry up and wait"
2. "The public's memory is short."
3. "The more that things change, the more they remain the same."
They continue to upset me, not only because they all sound sort of contradictory or just plain stupid (that would be #3), but because they call forth painful truths about Human nature. The recurring and recursive patterns of people's and society's behavior over time are very predictable. This makes us a species easily deceived, easily manipulated and dangerously self-destructive.
An observer from outside of our species (I am not thinking of a marmoset or a carp...I am thinking more along the lines of an intellectually-evolved creature with a 1,000-year lifespan from a distant galaxy, far away from midtown Manhattan) could rather easily predict Human responses to various stimuli or environmental changes. This observer would also notice that we [as a sciety or civilization] make very limited progress (think about our dependency on fossil fuels, nuclear proliferation, endless "winnable" wars, senseless fads and fashions, racism, climate change, depletion of resources, extinction of species, impulse purchasing, conspicuous consumption, fear of responsibility, drive-by shootings, Humvees, David Letterman's debauchery, Oprah Winfrey's weight...and so on) because we Humans generally have very limited attention spans, very limited conscious powers of recall, and a love of escapism, distraction and irresponsibility.
The Financial Times discusses the dubious progress that the global powers have made in pulling the industrialized world out of the current financial recession, and the dubious progress we've made in terms of changing any of the causal factors associated with the recession. In brief, we keep walking into the same tree, over and over again. One gets a headache just thinking about it.
The one constant in a world of variables is Human nature -- and aside from the limitations of physics, physiology, and certain unforeseen occurences (i.e., a large meteor impacting the Earth), Human nature is the most significant variable; or rather, the most immutable constant.
As one of my students remarked years ago (when I was teaching at Hofstra University and discussing the causality of banking collapses), "Wow. People are more constant than Pi." He was indeed a wise, if not articulate, fellow. He later went on to work for the prestigious firm of Merrill Lynch.
Please have a look at the Financial Times Newsletter. Just click on the link below:
http://us.update.ft.com/?key=3rft4qk8dkM2v2gs8r3t3kv7nM
Faithfully,
Douglas Castle
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