Change

Many years ago, a person said to the author: “you’ve changed”. Her accusatory tone implied the supposed morphing of his behaviour as iniquitous. At the time, young and naive as he was, he was a little confused and hurt but fortunately dogmatic enough to stand his ground. For even back then, he understood implicitly what she really meant was, “you’re no longer the person we want you to be.” Fortunately the author’s teenage form was wise enough to think to himself, “Good!”

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.

– Henri Bergson

Reflecting on it later, I’ve often thought of it as an endorsement. After all, to pursue an ideal; “to win the set of possible dominance hierarchies” as Peterson expounds or in effect accelerate its advent, how could one not ‘change‘? One could argue to begin life with higher levels of openness that gradually wane as we mature would be the most pragmatic; and is indeed what Srivasta et al., (2003) and other studies indicate. As you become more knowledgeable and astute in certain areas (specialization): the need for creative exploration diminishes.

We’re not infinitely capable of [change]. You can tell that because we die. We fail to keep up with the environment; its effects on us are deleterious. Now some of us do better at that than others, some of that’s: caution, care, attention, hard work; some of it’s luck. But no one manages it for more than about a hundred [and…a hundred years]. So it’s a losing… in some sense it’s a losing game in that you lose. You know…[, so you], then you might think well you know pfft, it’s hopeless. I don’t buy that because I think there are things you can do during the course of your life that are of sufficient merit to make the game worthwhile.

– Jordan Peterson

If you’ve been following the Canadian professor, you would recognize how paradigmatic the above paragraph is of his discernment, scrupulous articulation and endearing sincerity.