Constant Change is The New Normal

These storms get worse every year, and Hurricane Ian is no exception.

The world is constantly changing very rapidly, and the pace seems to be growing exponentially. On the one hand, each new climate initiative promises to make the world a better place. On the other hand, all the most exciting innovation around electric cars for example is using up our basic resources like electricity, and depleting the earth's precious metals and other valuable materials, or polluting the air, water, and ground during transit. So despite so much energy put into fixing the world's greatest challenges, things are not getting better.

Change is happening all around us and we can't stop it. The climate is becoming increasingly erratic and indignant, wars are breaking out around the world, some that may even have catastrophic consequences, and economies are crashing as prices skyrocket and shortages loom. To understand what's really going on and how to deal with it, we need to understand the purpose of the changes.

Before we understand the purpose of this constant change, we have to recognize its direction. The changes are leading to what looks like entropy, which is a scientific term for “total disorder.” But actually, what's really happening is that things are moving toward equilibrium, toward a state of balance, with equal pressures and equal density. Particles, all particles, and us humans are also particles, are spreading out more evenly. Just as the wind calms when the air pressure decreases because the air density has become more even, this is how particles are evening out across the global system. So what scientists define as entropy is actually increased order.

If we understand the direction of evolution—toward balance, or evenness—we will also realize that this is the purpose of everything that happens is to lead us toward balance.

The universe began at the moment of least evenness. At some point, the pressure was too great to contain, so the dot that was the condensed universe exploded. Since then, things have been moving toward increasing balance, or evenness.

If we understand the direction of evolution—toward balance, or evenness—we will also realize that this is the purpose of everything that happens is to lead us toward balance. Because evolution has such a clear direction, and reality is not there yet, nature keeps pushing toward increasing balance. As a result, the only thing that is guaranteed in reality is that yesterday is not the same as today, and today will not be tomorrow tomorrow. Constant change is the only certainty.

The reason we feel the world as chaotic is that we're resisting the process. Our ego wants the familiar to remain, and the changes to be safe and under control. Since the world doesn't behave the way we want, we try to change it. When we fail, we feel the world as hostile. We fight against nature, but nature will not yield. When we try to detain nature’s progress, it accumulates pressure, which ends up exploding in our faces. If we let the changes flow at their own pace, we would not feel them as hostile.

The Most Challenging Part

Now here's where things get tricky because balance and evenness are the last things our ego wants. It wants sovereignty and uniqueness. It wants everything to concentrate around the self. Unfortunately for us, this totally contradicts the flow of nature toward evenness and balance, and puts us at odds with reality.

Whether we agree or not, nature will force us to play by its rules, and become balanced. The concentration of so much power at the top of the pyramid contradicts the flow of evolution and will need to change. It is not a question of who will rule, but of the very purpose of ruling. Exploitation does not exist in nature, and therefore cannot exist in human society. All that exists is balance, and harmony. We've had these examples all along but chose to ignore them.

If we adapt our human network to the fabric of nature, we will feel that it supports us, and life will be an effortless journey. If we continue to rebel against nature and exploit each other, our struggles against nature and our wars against each other will grow increasingly intense. Whoever is left when all that is over (taking into account all the fancy new weapons we all have) will gladly agree to relinquish the ego's dominance and wholeheartedly agree that balance is the only sustainable way forward. I hope we won't have to go through all this suffering to get there because there is a better way.