The "End of the World," Disruptive Changes and the Reality of Human Indifference

Seems like almost every day there's some new reason the world is going to end... whether it's sudden pole shifts or the government causing a global economic meltdown after which we'll all be reduced to savage tribes running around clubbing each other over the head with sticks, just to get basic resources.

Some people are just "addicted" to fear and panic... who knows, maybe they get some sort of "rise" out of the dopamine hit. Beats me.

In truth, very few — if any — of these globe-spanning calamities come to pass, typically because the doomsday mongers overlook one of the strongest forces on the planet: The Power of Human Indifference.

Maybe that sounds a bit harsh, but if you think about it, the vast majority of people just don't really CARE very much.

Just consider politics and how often we hear that "massive changes are coming" because people are "fed up," and yet? When push comes to shove on election day there's no "landslide vote" that changes everything; instead we see — for Nth time — the the indifference of the majority rules supreme, once again.

It's not a very exciting or glamorous thought, but if you ask me — purely as a life-long observer of the Human Condition — the thing that's most likely to happen as a result of any given "movement" for change is... pretty much nothing.

Perhaps it's a bit rude of me to call it "indifference," and perhaps the more appropriate description would be to say that most people prefer the already established way of doing things to having to change their paradigm to something new and untested.

Much as a many of us around here sing the praises of cryptocurrencies as "the future," it's going to — most likely — going to be a pretty long and slow road to that future. And if/when we do reach that future, the majority of the shift will not be because people suddenly run towards the change, but because they reach a point where they see the change as "inevitable," and thus decide they have no choice but to be pulled along into a new age.

Heck, I could even add myself to that sluggishness... I didn't get my first mobile phone till 2005! I saw no real point in having one till I started driving cross country a few times.

It's definitely not what most idealists and change agents would like to think... but it does tend to be how we humans adapt to — and adopt — change.

Consider that the Internet itself — one of the most recent "massively disruptive" technologies in our history — and how long it took to really reach mass adoption. The first "widespread" version of America Online showed up in 1993, and almost thirty years later just about 60% of the world's population is online in some way.

Similarly, the Nokia-1011 was the world's first mass produced mobile phone and it became available in 1992. As of March 2021, about 62% of the global population uses some kind of mobile device.

So what does that have to do with the End of the World?

If people are as sluggish at moving towards Beneficial Changes as they have been with the Internet and cell phones, I feel pretty confident in suggesting they would be even slower and more indifferent when it comes to embracing and moving towards disaster scenarios.

As for mass adoption of cryptocurrencies? Meh... come back and talk to me in 20 years!

Thanks for reading, and have a great rest of your week!

How about YOU? Are you quick to move towards change — good or bad — or are you more of a slow mover, sticking to the already used standards for as long as possible? In spite of our HOPES to the contrary, is the majority of the world pretty much indifferent? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20210331 00:22 PDT
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