Status Quo

Antiques, classic cars and furniture, tradition, old saying, keeping with the old, customary, and many other titles that inspire conservatism are opposed to phrases such as new, future thinking, getting rid of old baggage, modernism, and futuristic. We use this vernacular in a daily basis, not knowing that we are expressing a way of thinking. We realize that change can be achieved only through forward thinking, but does it mean that we have to abandon the past and never look back?

 Natural phenomena forced people to leave out of what was called “Fertile Crescent” to other areas of the world, about 10,000 year ago. Human beings have had the ingenuity to move towards environment more friendly to them. Although we are not able to control floods, earthquakes, and tornadoes, we know how to change many other aspects of environment to our benefit. For instance, we use shelter, clothing, heating instruments in cold and cooling instruments in warm climates. We know how to use fossil, solar and wind energies. We have been increasing our life spans during a short time (considering the life of earth and universe) and have mastered the earth, and have increased our knowledge of the universe. Therefore, not only living in the same condition as in the old time is not brilliant, thinking like our forefathers and keeping the same costumes and traditions and forms of governments and religions, are not what would move us to a better society. Hence, we have to be careful that forward thinking and new and innovative way of life comes with a price, unless we take necessary measures. An understanding of the footprint we leave on the nature is the first step in realizing that all living things are related to each other, and in the absence of others, we will jeopardize our existence by continuously breaking the chain connecting us with each other. There are about 2,000,000 species of known wild animals today. This number has been diminishing in a daily basis due to the human abuse of the nature. Human being has reached the point that the damage is irreversible and nature is starting to react to the abuse, resulting global warming and other environmental damages. We create chemicals abundantly without contemplating its lifelong existence when it is utilized. We pollute the air and earth and water, our sources of existence, with poisonous gases, crude oil and other chemicals, garbage and radioactive material, as if there is no future. Forward thinking is only possible through our knowledge of the past.

Forward thinking is about change through inventions and discoveries. We learn from our experience (kept in memory) or from other people’s experiences (written materials and media) sciences and cultures of the past that need improvement and advancement by us. Without experience, it is almost impossible to achieve higher learning, the source of creativity. Therefore, knowledge of the past is important, as long as we are not trapped in the past and merely continue the way of living of our ancestors. A status quo is cherishing the past while refusing to move forward. Keeping customs that impede forward thinking has not been and cannot be the way of great thinkers who have changed the world. Changing a way of life that excels humanity has been the idea of those who have left an imprint in the history. The battle between old and new has been a way of life for centuries, which is challenged into cooperation by learning the past for improving on it by forward thinking.