The Cycle of Changes

There is a psychological phenomenon which is quite fascinating and important to understand. It is the vicious cycle of implementing change in a violent way.

Let´s start with the positive cycle of change. Imagine a normal situation in life. Someone with a good idea or new inventions or higher knowledge for improvement shows up, explains his ideas and the positive effects. People are listening, seeing the good nature of it and then simply implement the changes. Their life improves and benefits. Old ideas are replaced by better ideas. We can call this positive development based on necessary changes. This change can happen in one field of life or in many or it can concern all aspects of life, society, religion, technology, politics, economics and sciences. As an example, think about inventions like making fire, the wheel, the use of metal, ceramics, etc. They spread easily and all people benefited. In the religious field, – imagine wise men come to your village to start teaching. You appreciate the wisdom of them and integrate it for your benefit. From time to time new ideas come and will improve life. A natural, positive cycle.

Now, let´s examine the vicious cycle of change. Here it is not about improvement. Here it is about change by the misuse of power, by violent means, by dominance. In fact, this vicious cycle can be seen as the standard while the positive development is rare.

The vicious cycle consists of the steps: Violence – Acceptance – Integration – Satisfaction – Violence

In history, we often find it as results of war, missionary work, ideology and dictatorship. Again, people are in a situation of normal life. Suddenly someone conquers the country or missionaries come or a dictator takes over or a new ideology is installed and then everything changes. People are not asked if they want these changes. They are forced with violent means. In the second step, people accept the changes even if they are evil, because they feel powerless. Then the changes are integrated in life. Over time, – years and decades, the changed situation becomes normal, a part of everyday life. Only the older people remember the violent implementation. The younger people do not know life in a different way. Due to the process of setting things as normal, as standard, people react with a kind of satisfaction corresponding to the slogan “Life goes on!”. Then the next cycle starts with new missionaries, a new ideology, a new dictator, a new war, etc.

When we pick out a few examples, the tragedy becomes obvious. Let´s take the old Celts in Europe a long time ago. They had their own religion, their own deities, their own high priests, their own culture, etc. But one day the Romans came with violence and destroyed everything what was of true value for the Celts. Suddenly, there were new standards, new religious ideas, a new form of society, etc. After some time, the Celts accepted more or less these new standards, while the old ones were still traumatized, the younger ones were open for all the new things. And after some more time, the new standard was accepted and perceived as normal and good. But then, one day the Christian missionaries came to bring a new religion, different to the original Celtic religion and different to the Roman religions. Again, with violence the old standard was replaced by a new one. Meanwhile Europe is Christian in tradition, respectively atheism and materialism have already replaced again the old standards.

Change is natural. The point is just the aspect of violence and that the change does not lead to a benefit for the people. The benefit is only for those who apply the violent abuse. It is in all case a matter of power, political power over people.

When we think about the old Druids or the Yogis or the Sufis or the Buddhists, – there is not a single one who thought about violent missionary work. Quite the contrary, they all are just teaching and those who are open and feel that it is useful, they become followers. These followers benefit personally.

It is important to understand such mechanisms. In fact, we always have the choice between the positive way and the negative, destructive way to realize goals. Unfortunately, most people prefer the destructive, painful path.  

And unfortunately, there is often a complete lack of understanding our ancestors and of appreciating them in their culture, religion, etc. Quite the contrary, they are perceived as infidels or ignoramuses.

But besides these general, violent changes there are also everyday changes which people are not really aware of, which they do not question. Just one example: Every year a new smartphone comes onto the market. On first sight this seems nice and good. On second sight it is obvious, – the customer is forced to buy every year a new smartphone for a lot of money. The point is that the technology does not really change that much. There are only small improvements which do not justify paying up to 600 or 1000 Dollars. It is a subtle deception which the customers accept. In fact, it would be sufficient to offer a new, improved smartphone every three or five years. The same is true with computers, cars and many other products. The yearly invention of a new, fantastic toothbrush is ridiculous. But people believe in progress and they don´t mind that they have to produce all the stupid stuff by themselves instead of enjoying time by doing important things.

The elite keeps people busy. Busy people have no time and no energy to question the system.