Resistance to Change

Life is the continual adaptation of self to the changing conditions within ones environment. The self, both consciously and unconsciously, wants to maintain its dignity in the face of the humiliating circumstances thrust upon it. The self must alter its story to meet these changes. When successful, life goes on and there are no issues, but when the self is unable to adapt, by altering itself to meet the new reality, conflict ensues with the result being depression or some other mental break. When a society as a whole, or in distinct sections, faces change and is unable to adapt resistance will occur. Members of a society facing change, seeing their relative positions diminish, seeing others advance while they sink into lower and lower positions, will become angry and resist the challenge of adaptation. Groups of people will resist change and attempt to reverse course. At its worst, this leads to a complete breakdown of society and the development of a new one such as, for example, in Nazi Germany or, on a lesser level, the 1960’s in the United States. Societies can, if functioning properly, evolve without a dramatic break with the past, but if that society is not capable of change there can be a sudden violent break that will give birth to a new order that is often more terrible than the old. Of course, the violent break can also occur when a society attempts to resist change and preserve some fantasy of the past by creating an artificial society based upon myth.

Not all change for the individual or society leads to a dramatic break with the past or conversely some destructive resistance to that change. On the individual level, most change is accepted and worked through as part of the natural process of life. Societal changes forced by economics, immigration, or government also generally occur without a major break with the past because change is gradual. Life, if lived fully, is a series of adaptions to changing conditions both externally and internally. A child experiences a revolutionary change when it is born and continues to face revolutionary changes that repeatedly break it with the past. How those changes are managed by the child and the parent set a pattern for how the developing person will deal with change in the future. Birth, separation, school, relationships starting and ending, rites of passage such as graduation from high school and college are all changes the normal individual confronts and passes through with little or no drama. The healthy individual moves through life adapting to changing circumstances by either accepting or resisting.