Plus ça change(plus c'est la même chose).

It has been said that change is welcome only by those creating the changes and are most likely to benefit from the changes they are seeking to make. The theme of President Obama’s election campaign was the need for change, I bet George Bush and his supporters didn’t agree on the perceived need for change, any more than Gordon Brown and his party would subscribe to the current Conservative calls for change. I was once told by a man whose mind I respected greatly “That the one certain thing about tomorrow is that it will be different from what you thought it would be” He took that view because as he pointed out nothing stands still. Not in politics, business or life generally. The trick is not to resist movement but to become a part of it and by doing so, gain some form of control or influence over the events that affect your life.
 
I have seen many changes in my long life. One of them is the attitude of people towards authority and one another. The snowfalls this week reminded me of another time, 1947. Then we had snowdrifts and cold weather for weeks. But people didn’t throw up their hands in despair or moan about it, life didn’t come to a sudden halt, the media people didn’t immediately invite criticism from all and sundry about how much grit was being spread, or where it was being spread, or whose fault it was that there wasn’t enough grit to go round. It was assumed that those responsible were doing their best to keep the main roads open, those risking all to actually spread the salt in appalling conditions were respected and thanked for their industry; and the men and boys cleared the areas in front of their houses so that everyone could walk freely. Shopkeepers did the same outside their shops and schools stayed open regardless. This week I have noticed that none of the pavements outside houses have been cleared and few of the pavements in our town centre. Well it’s the responsibility of….someone else to do these things isn’t it? Or perhaps the advice on the radio stopped people from doing it. They have reported that by performing such a public spirited act you may be contravening some health and safety ruling.….I can’t help wondering in which twisted little mind that piece of nonsense originated.
 
The events of 2009 demonstrated very clearly that business isn’t immune from change either. Who ever would have thought that our banks, that once seemed so safe, safe as “The Bank of England”, would get themselves into such a state? Great names of the high street vanished without trace and new names have taken their place. Household products that have been around for ages are suddenly replaced with new versions. Even the sporting world is going through enormous changes. Football clubs, once owned by supporters or local businessmen, are now owned by corporations and foreign financiers. Large sections of our media are owned or controlled by companies based overseas. Even the food we eat has changed beyond all recognition. Once this country was regarded as a gastronomic desert, now virtually every form and style of cooking you can imagine can be found in restaurants in even the smallest town.
 
So what causes change to occur? What makes whole civilisations change direction? Education that leads to higher aspirations? The media in all it’s forms showing what others have and what is possible? Marketing that creates desire or ambition for new and more exciting ways of living? Simple need, greed or envy? I have no doubt that all these things make a contribution to the direction and speed of change to a greater or lesser degree, but the actual, basic motivation is I am sure endemic in the human condition. Things change simply because they cannot stand still, one situation must lead to another and each new position forms a basis for the next movement. Not all change is beneficial of course, the difficulty is deciding what is good and what is not, and having decided whether the changes that have so changed life in one area will improve the lot of those in other parts of the world where lifestyles and mindsets are totally different.
 
At the beginning of a new decade what cathartic changes can we expect? A change of government, austerity, new versions of the same problems that troubled us all in the past decade and of course a whole lot of new versions of old difficulties that must be overcome. Fortunately problems created by man can always be resolved by man, it’s those that are not that present the biggest challenges. Global warming and all that. That is a phenomenon that will require the whole of man’s ingenuity to resolve and once again the solution in one part of the world may make matters worse in another. Like the man says: “The one certain thing about tomorrow is that it will be different from what you think it will be”. Who knows, governments may even cooperate with one another all around the world to solve such conundrums. Maybe there won’t be any changes worth talking about for a while, and pigs might mount a flypast over London….who knows?