How Long Does Change Take?
Not surprisingly, defenders of the status quo will try to convince us that humans, human nature, and nothing can ever change -- rather than that change is the first order of business for all life and living things, what life is all about -- and to try to deny that, resist that, is the deteriorating force of life, in trying to maintain an unvarying permanence in the swiftly flowing river of life.
The basic unit of change is not even slow, steady, linear change along a continuum of predictability -- but rather, the quantum leap. That is the instantaneous moment of change that releases tremendous energy, power and momentum -- which is the language of change, movement, dynamism. Change is movement -- which the metaphors of sports, conditioning and exercise, lend themselves so readily to -- with the central organizing purpose of success and improvement being the easily understood objectives and measurement.
Those ends have to change in order for there to be significant talk of “change,” and not the rationalization that the more things change, the more they stay the same, which is the mantra of the defeatism of the status quo. They’ll agree to any change -- as long as everything stays the same, which is of course, no change. This kind of self-delusion makes one vulnerable to all manner of deceptions -- because if one buys into the notion that change means no change, or should take much time before it can be detected, then it is quite possible and easy, to convince them that something that does no good, is very good indeed, and maybe the best that ever has been and is possible!
In such a culture of deception, it’s always been that way and always will be that way -- and that is why we have to do it that way, with the predictable no change, and no success or improvement. That is the language and culture of the dead, dying and despair -- and not the living, and so “culture” are the rituals of the past reaffirmed by the present -- rather than a living culture of successful, evolving adaptations being created and shared momentarily as the living.
One sees these cultures in every organization and activity in human society. These people just mindlessly go through the motions hoping for a different result -- and not realizing that the results, are in some way connected to what they are doing, or not doing. This is the prescientific consciousness of the world -- that exists in pockets of subcultures alongside prevailing cultures and actions that actually make a difference, are vital, evolving, really progressing.
Most people experience dead culture as the popular culture of common notions, myths and fallacies -- propagated by the rearguard institutions of the media, schools and universities.. Meanwhile, on the leading edge of these deceptions, common notions and ignorance, individuals are discovering and testing what actually works, not simply satisfied with more elaborate and convoluted explanations of why things aren’t working -- as though that was some kind of knowledge worth knowing.
posted by Mike Hu @ 1:20 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
It‘s the inability to understand change -- .not over time, but immediately, that is the failure of most programs to effect change. Obviously, in order for there to be change over the longterm, it has to happen in the shortterm, as well as instantaneously -- otherwise, there is no indication that eventually it all happens in one miraculous moment after a prolonged period of no change.
One hears that same kind of thinking in other discussions -- such as the investor who wants a stock to go down all the time he is buying into it over the course of 20-30 years, and then, all of a sudden, to be worth more than what he bought it for -- only when he wants it to, at his retirement. Meantime, he wants it to be a loser for everybody else who ever bought it -- with the exception of himself. Why would such an investor think it was a wise investment if the value of that investment only went down year after year? Does only our investor have privy to secret information of the universe that everybody else does not? Obviously, this is all simply wishful-thinking -- rather than any valid understanding of reality -- which can be observed and verified by everyone else.
Often in the transmission of the information, one is sworn to uphold the secrecy of such revelations -- so that it cannot be examined and questioned by anyone else. Anonymity of source and method cannot be revealed to those outside the inner circle of “professionals,” who are self-policing That’s not science but mysticism, sorcery, and hearsay. The only power it has, is the power one is willing to give to such beliefs -- which even in this day and age, some people do. Those are the people who expect to spend time, energy and money -- with no results, but it doesn’t bother them as long as somebody promises them some at some vague time in the future.
Of course it’s a con -- but that doesn’t stop them from getting all their friends, relatives and anybody else they have contact with in on it too. Misery and futility loves company -- and doesn’t feel quite so foolish if everybody else is experiencing the same thing. And so the newspapers will run at this time of the year, a series of articles by their leading experts on such matters, because she’s “tried them all” -- and none of them have worked! So it shouldn’t work for you too.
The genius of the human species is to make hard work easier -- and not devise ways to make it more difficult; that would not be the exercise of intelligence that is the human being.
The conditioning desired is to enable one to move as efficiently and effortlessly as possible -- as the well-conditioned actualization. But how does one think that is best achieved? By making every movement as difficult and laborious as possible? The conditioning makes one what he is.
One does not expect to beat a child unmercifully thinking such a person will grow up to be the most loving, kind, trusting person -- yet there are those who operate with that kind of opposite and backwards understanding of human nature as well as all other phenomena in the world. Such people are advised, not to trust their own senses but rather to rely increasingly on the advice of others, and so in such conditioning programs, the only question allowed is “How high?”, when others demand that he jump. Obviously that kind of conditioning is something other than the best interest of the practitioner.
Under some special conditions, it is desired that everyone not decide for themselves what is best to do and has to be done -- but as a lifelong strategy, nobody cares more than one should about their own health and well-being -- despite what others may claim. That is as it should be -- in all honesty.
Yet it is true that the best of all possible worlds, is that in which everyone is at their best, and not just oneself fighting off everybody else not so enlightened. That’s how society works. We benefit from the over productivity of others -- rather than the insatiable demands upon others.
Those who do make things easier, in that way create a reservoir of excess potential energy, that is the capital that can be applied to other challenges and luxuries of life. That is one of the objectives of an exercise/conditioning program -- to build up these reserves of energy, stored as muscle, and so immediately accessible to any effort, on demand. That is very different from the energy built up and stored as fat -- which is not immediately available when one desires it.
Obviously, this capacity is not readily and immediately available if one conditions himself to think that before making an effort, or doing work, he has to go through a prolonged period of mental preparation and warmup, including finding the perfect conditions and wardrobe for any attempts, planning schedules, deciding what he is having for dinner that night, etc.
So what has to begin without all those distractions and thoughts burdening one’s simplicity of function and movement. That is best done immediately upon waking -- establishing a base level of functioning for the entire day thereafter.
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