Anxiety over Change.

[Three Wolves In Snow]

Originally Posted by cb2008

I see. So it is all THEM. That leaves you with no options, doesn’t it? Does that cause you anxiety?

No. I don't like what I listed, but it doesn't make me 'anxious'. Why would it?

[cb2008]

Originally Posted by Three Wolves In Snow

No. I don't like what I listed, but it doesn't make me 'anxious'. Why would it?

Because lack of control over what we see as caused by others, there is nothing one can do to change. lack of control often causes anxiety, fear, anger and hate. not good things.

[Drew Hagl]

Humans naturally seek security in the known. It is both comforting and a means of mitigating risk.
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

On the other hand, humans are collectively rarely satisfied with the status quo. Virtually everything we do is because, at some point in time, someone(s) decided that how things were done wasn't good enough.
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

The conflict between those two things is ever-present in both individuals and society. It informs our life choices, our relationships, our politics.

There is a certain relativity to resistance to change, where that resistance is focused on changes currently happening, being proposed, or which have recently happened. But the further back in time a change happened, the less opposition there will be to it. This is because, as I noted, almost everything we do was once new. But if it was new before a living person was around, it is less likely that person will be discomfited by that change. To them, it simply isn't change; it's normal.

Example:
Some people dislike smart-phones, but not mobile phones in general. Fewer people dislike the latter, preferring landlines. Very few oppose phones altogether. Yet even the basic landline, that one had to crank and then be connected by an operator, was once as newfangled as can be.

And one day the iPhone 14, currently of the future, will be obsolete, a relic, an antique. So it goes.

I understand the impulsive dislike of change. In general it does not bother me, because I am aware of the fact that my perspective is of the aforementioned relative sort. Still, I am comfortable with the music I discovered during my formative years. I lament some changes in our body politic, in the way we do things. I confess that some changes baffle me, and I generally don't care for new technology until it has been around for a time. At the same time, I acknowledge that because I am happy or at least accepting of the vast majority of change that has accrued to the habits of my species over the millennia, the current change that might be annoying me probably is doing so just because I'm set in my ways and not because of any inherent defect in it. Of course, there are always exceptions. Parsing out those exceptions from the general rule is always problematic. Depending on one's nature - ie, progressive or conservative, at least pertaining to change - one might be inclined to dismiss actual problems with change or to see problems with change where they do not actually exist, respectively.

One final observation I have is to note that change has been accruing at an increasingly faster rate. Innovations, social and technological, are piling up faster than ever. So the present pace of change might be a particular source of stress for some. Conversely, again, that has long been true. Yes, change over the last fifty years has been arguably greater than ever. However, change during the preceding fifty years was itself arguably greater than any that had gone before it. And so on.

So even if one does not like change, perhaps it is useful to understand why one does not like it.

[Sonic_Spork]

I think that one issue we've got, is that as change happens (say for instance, technological advancement) those who have power, and those who grasp for it will seek and find ways to use it to manipulate and exploit people around them.

The anxiety is in some ways a deliberate thing. And different forms of anxiety that are provoked on purpose by persistent messaging through various media and tech channels benefit different power holders. It has never been more important for us to not just shut everything out and rest sometimes, but to be very careful and constantly mindful about what ideas we take in and accept as part of our belief systems, that move our decisions and biases.

Obviously a lot of politics is driven by provoked anxiety among the population. But aside from that, so is a lot of consumerism. And so is the urge to stay at home inside rather than going out into the world among other people. Though I personally believe that some degree of this was needful at the height of the pandemic, now for instance I also see a ton of fearmongering on some social media platforms about crime. I've just moved to a new city, and I wonder if it is safe for me to get out and walk or hike by myself. I did not, in my past, have this question even in my mind. It becomes an excuse to stay at home. To engage with the world through screens more, and face to face less. This isn't good, and I know it's not. Because baked into the tech are various agendas. The more I use the screens, the more opportunity I'm giving other people with agendas, to manipulate my thinking.

I remember when someone I knew told me that I should not go to a festival that was downtown in my previous city, because "that many people in one place practically invites a mass shooting" or "didn't you hear, since there is a sanctuary city nearby, there might be radical Islamic people who commit rape right on the street!" He had been a shut in, engaging with conspiracy content on screens more than the outside world, for years by that point, and this struck me then as outrageous and paranoid and delusional. Well, it still does. I'm more worried about poorly trained off leash dogs, or a run in with native wildlife or something...maybe getting mugged, at most... But it's easy to overestimate the danger, the more we avoid being out in the world. It's easy to start thinking that other people are bad, when you stop interacting with the many who are good.

[Lillie767]

Even the land needs to rest.

"Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow,"

Exodus 23:10-11.

Refusing to adjust with new scenery is even worse/extra lethal.

Almost a downfall of my own Mother, for one example. Living in the South Bronx ghetto for up to three decades+,why? After living in a 7 bedroom rural Eastern Europe village house. Very strange. Thanks for not making me pay the rent, although. To actually live over there. Totally a Taurus compared to a Gemini.

Now, in terms of sociological connected with the news media. The 21st Century: 2003-2019 are universally infinitely superior years in that form compared to the 2020's. That was the Change that was actually nice for people. Internet/Computers!, Safer airplanes, International Travel, More Cool Countries To Visit, New start up Tech companies, Business support to Cool Stores without ever closing down to customers. Even the most fixed not mutable individuals didn't really mind.

The 2020's, 2030's might return back to the single digit teens 2000's, but probably a lot less brand new. Possible to end up even better/Improving is kind of in a very narrow window. Almost very fantastical/requires tons of effort.

[tijlover]

One good way to lessen your anxiety over unexpected changes and shocks is to read your History books. I overcome a lot of my anxiety through reading History, as history keeps repeating itself, and with enough History you can all but make predictions as what's to come, and some people may label you as a Psychic.

This may lessen your anxiety, but not eradicate it.

I recently read about a lingering drought in Scotland in the early 1700's which drove a lot of people out of that country to England and the New World. And here I sit worried about the water crisis here in the SW, thinking droughts only happen in the desert areas. They can happen anywhere.

Moderator's edit: Good advice. And with that, we will give this topic a rest.