Change is hard and even though we know the change will be good for us, it is
in our very nature to reject change. As humans we trust what we know, because
we have the ‘physical evidence’ to base our findings on. Even though this
evidence is based on individual experiences that are uniquely shaped by our
own egos and biased disposition. However the resistance to change is easily
diminished by consciously telling ourselves that it is okay, this will be
good for us and taking the first step, by expecting that resistance is not
truth, change becomes easy.
Heffernan highlights our adversity to change in the following statement:
“Ideology powerfully masks what, to the uncaptivated mind, is obvious,
dangerous, or absurd. Fear of conflict, fear of change keeps us that way. An
unconscious (and much denied) impulse to obey and conform, shields us from
confrontation and provides friendly alibis for our inertia. Money as well has
the power to blind us, even to our better selves.”
Our blind spots become anything that is outside of our circle of security,
the known warmth of our own made up truths.
We need to, as individuals, communities and companies widen our line of sight
and question what we have been conditioned to learn and trust. We need to
take a deeper look at what has shaped us and re-evaluate its importance, but
better yet its level of truth.
Heffernan writes, “We make ourselves powerless when we choose not to know.
But we give ourselves hope when we insist on looking. The very fact that
willful blindness is willed, that it is a product of a rich mix of
experience, knowledge, thinking, neurons, and neuroses, is what gives us the
capacity to change it.”
It is time accountability moves our blindness out the way, it’s time we work
together to highlight the flaws that we no longer see in our immediate social
infrastructure.
It is time we see change as a gift of growth and extended
knowledge and not the act of rebellion we were programmed to view it as.
It’s time we acknowledge and use our freedom, because freedom is only freedom
if you use it.