change is not always good

One of the most damaging concepts of the modern age is that change is always good. This is a profound and dangerous fallacy.

To understand why this is the case let us begin with the primary law of the universe. Entropy.

Entropy holds that everything interferes with everything else. In the process everything slows down. And as things slow down things break. And as things break they disintegrate into nothingness. Things decay.

Thus it is the fundamental law of the universe that things disintegrate into nothingness. Rather depressing really. Many artists, poets, and songwriters have commented on how pointless it is to struggle against entropy. I recall a rather depressing Pink Floyd song about this very issue.

However there seems to be some exceptions to this rule of universal decay. Some things defy entropy and keep other things together. Life is an example of entropy-defying order. Generation after generation, life continues and actually seems to improve. At least if you consider things becoming more complex, more ordered, and more functional as improvements.

Complexity requires order to continue, and order is the opposite of decay.

So what does entropy have to do with whether or not change is always good?

If something exists it is evidence that it is working — it is defying entropy and decay. If something can defy decay it is evidence that there is something maintaining the order. We may not know and understand what is opposing entropy and decay, but it is would seem to be doing its job at promoting order and preserving complexity.

With that in mind ‘change for the sake of change’ is insanity. Suicidal even. Changing things that work is not a good idea unless you are improving upon the process; that is increasing the decay-defying order.

Take for example a car. For a car to function thousands of different pieces must perfectly fit together and work in harmony. (I think it is worth pointing out, even if a bit off point, that this car did not assemble itself. It was designed to work. It was built by others. But even if it did somehow assemble itself over time it functions because of a complex set of systems that work together. Take out a key part and the entire system fails. So…