Changing Times

Which generation is the most resistant to change?  There is a stereotype perhaps you could call it, that portrays younger people as more liberal and revolutionary therefore willing to embrace change, and paints older people as more resistant to change and conservative in nature.  I'm not convinced this is actually true however, the realisation that things aren't so black and white ironically came with age, or to be more precise, the moment I could look at the generation that came after my own and note the divergence was so significant that I could no longer consider myself part of it.

With that realisation however came another, that each generation has its own set of beliefs, and whilst they may purport to be flexible in those beliefs, they really aren't in practice.  This judgement is something I resisted when I was younger, insisting that forward momentum and progress were the things I wanted more than anything and those that my generation professed to desire too, but in hindsight what I now recognise that sentiment to be is shallow.  The reality is that the true motivation for that desire is to demarcate the previous generation and its relation to your own, and likewise I recognise this motivation remains, with much of the judgement held by my own generation for that which has come after being the same desire to define the limits of your own generation.  Whilst people may not openly admit it, this idea harkens back to labelling which I mentioned in a previous post; people want to place themselves in a box because they find a degree of security and certainty from doing so.

So if we return to the original question of asking which generation is the most resistant to change, I would actually argue that every generation is conservative with the definition of who they are and what they were, but when it comes to moving forward there is a liberal approach.  This is something that will immediately be argued as untrue by those who are younger, even those within my generation will argue with me that those who came before us are "stuck in their ways" and "will never change" but I would argue that's a misconception.  With age I have found myself increasingly asking the question "Is this what we're doing now?" and when the answer is "Yes, get on board" for the most part I'll just go with it - and I know I'm not alone.  You pick and choose the battles you want to fight, and you become more aware of what it is and is not worth pushing back against.  I would argue that every generation is equally open, and equally closed to the concept of change, the only thing that actually changes over time is where your main focus is placed.

I would argue that those who are younger desire revolution and new order with the things that matter most to them, the things that have the greatest influence on their lives, and whilst most older people won't want to admit it, the vast majority of young people are fully aware that their lives are controlled by politics, government, laws, and what is generally referred to as "the establishment" it is therefore natural that this is the focus of their efforts to change and reform.  Most older people don't like to admit this because they don't like the idea that young people are more politically aware than they are - but the truth is they are, they just haven't conformed to the conventional definition of that awareness as defined by involvement in party politics, electioneering, and activism - there are exceptions of course.  That conventional definition of political awareness is a misnomer however, it is not an awareness of the impact of politics, how policy actually influences peoples' lives, or what it's like to endure the burden of legislation that limits your life to such extremes.  Instead the conventional definition could be argued to the contrary to in reality be political complacency rather than awareness.  Involvement in these ways are in essence conformity.  Party politics is very much about labelling your views and your positions and putting yourself in yet another proverbial box.

Move beyond politics however and you will see with age that much of the shift in focus moves towards the reality of life beyond politics.  People start to care more about how much their bills cost, and the practicalities of life, rather than policy and debate.  Which again can be argued as ironic as the former influences the latter, but there we are.  With this shift in focus, you begin to see how older generations give up much quicker than younger generations.  Instead of resisting change, they embrace it.  As trends change, behaviours change, pop culture evolves, and fashions emerge, you see older generations move with that change - again there are exceptions as there always will be.

Returning to the question once more, which generation is the most resistant to change?  The answer in conclusion then seems to be that it depends on what you want to change.  In general no generation resists more than any other, but each generation has something it cares about more than anything else where they will stand their ground and resist - sometimes successfully, but more often than not unsuccessfully so by mere virtue that the sum total of every other generation will always outnumber your own, and with time every generations' size naturally declines.  The only societal changes that gain traction and manage to persist in the end are those that bridge generations, if you want to change the world you need more than just your own generation to care about your issue.