A Reaction Paper for Sociology 101
By Rodney Schmidt Fall 1972
Washington State University
Our written history is a book of change. Revolution, conspiracy, riot, political organization… all forms of pursing change. It is not the purpose of this paper to show the obvious, that change does occur in all societies. To avoid an irrelevant proof, we shall assert that change is constantly going on. Our objective is to rationalize why change is occurring. Being less than divine, the purpose of change will remain a mystery, but at least a few cause-effect relationships can be rationalized.
What are some of the causes of change? Change is a constant victim of a chain reaction. New ideas are only possible after relating to old ones. Today’s new ideas are tomorrow’s old ideas. The competition builds and technology skyrockets. How did this technological nightmare ever get started? Even before muddle-fingered man began to scramble things, the universe was on a changing time scale. Glaciers came and left. Climates changed to such extremes that tropical jungles are now buried under desert sands. Some organisms like dinosaurs could not adjust and are no longer alive. Man became keen at adjusting to adverse environments. Man became so keen that he conquered every intolerable niche on earth and now looks to outer space. Man up to a point was the greatest success story ever written. Man was able to adjust to everything… except other men. Today man’s greatest threat is not nature, but man himself.
What are some of the effects of human success? Overpopulation is still the most devastating effect. Nature has not given up yet, though. She has her last resort weapons of starvation and disease. So far nature has been very successful on small scale warfare. Plagues hit Europe in the filthy cities of the 17th and 18th centuries. Starvation is killing in India. Malnutrition is dampening the minds of entire nations. Overpopulation means man competing against man. Discontent and intolerance grow. Man sees that other men have it easier than he and greed begins to rule. Man needs to be unique and has even resorted to assassination just to get a headline. Men want and kill other men in bloody wars to get what they want. Overproduction, pollution, crime… all are rampant in our changing society. The tempo is getting faster! Politicians broadcast needed changes. Our goal should be the ideal, the perfect society.
The fact that people want to change is evidence enough that we have not yet known the ideal perfect society. Are we coming closer to or getting farther from our “best of all possible worlds”? Tomorrow is forever gone. Whoever said history repeats itself lacks real depth of the long run society.
Rodney Schmidt Legacy 