Is stability just complacency?
I have a question that I want to try and gain clarity on, I honestly do not know if I will have an answer by the end but thats life. Sticking to what is known, tried and tested does this allow for complacency meaning no growth or the ability to venture out into the unknown? A loaded question but to break it down I had a conversation with an old friend of mine and asked for his help. After helping me his final words were “two words I will leave you with is ‘STABILITY & SECURITY’, and to do what I will with them.” Knowing me in the past I would have went in but I decided to reflect cause he helped me but I wanted to know why he would say that to me when hard times come for everyone no matter how good you are doing in life. In my self reflection I came to the realization I am not taking a traditional path in life and that was why I was bothered by his comment.
I am Bisexual while being Polyamorous and I do not have dreams of marrying, having kids, working my whole life, and dying after nothing to show for it but material success. Many people do and to each their own but that is my perspective on it with that wording to show what I think about the traditional path. Also in my realization I looked at my life and I am doing things many people do not do traditionally and can be perceived as unstable and not secure because the traditional path it has been tried and tested many times over. Due to capitalism the traditional path only reinforces the status quo and the lifestyle that has been shown to produce the most direct path to whatever capitalism promises like the American Dream.
What I would like to analyze is whether the traditional path provides security with complacency and no reason to stray from that path as anything else is less secure and unknown. In Survivorship Bias theory an example of 20 planes go off but only 6 return, the 6 planes are looked at and are found to not have damage in particular areas suggesting those areas are the reason for their return without accessing the data on the other planes that did not return leading to an overlooking off crucial data. This overly complicated example was used to explain how in many instances in society if one person can do something it must mean everyone can do it without accessing other crucial information to lead to such conclusion. If the main theory is YOU can be successful under capitalism than anyone can be successful as well which leads to so many people supporting billionaires and millionaires without accessing how they got their money whether they had old money, exploited workers, bribed the right people, or many other things that can lead to such wealth.
If me taking the untraditional path is seen as less secure and unstable then I would like to state the fact that everything we have today was because someone went against the grain. Evolution and progress has come because of the unknown and daring act to try even thought the odds may be against them. Someone had to be the first to try something thing to advance us all as a society and by doing the same thing over and over again leads us nowhere. I refuse to believe that by doing what has already been done will lead to innovation of any kind because all it does it keep those in line to follow tradition because “tradition works”. If you try to change anything about the status quo there will be pushback as the saying goes “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” meaning things will stay the same because things have always worked the way they have.
I obviously do not live a white and heteronormative lifestyle which is seen as the top of the food chain in society but being that I am a man who no longer believes in gender roles or gender at all anymore, society currently is not built for me or people like me with their differences. On this topic of patriarchy, white supremacy, and hierarchical structure it reinforces the status quo but at the same time keeps and oppresses the very people the system was meant to benefit. If you have to live up to the expectations of the past and follow the traditional path perfectly it leaves no room for innovation, discovery, and even creation of new things.
I sometimes get the feeling I may have done the wrong things or I messed up somewhere in life along the way but at the same time I am putting myself out there to try something new, to see what else is to the world besides the same old same old. I want better for me and everyone on earth, even animals and the environment because the old ways are not doing it anymore. Even the hope of the next generation can be seem as dim as the promises of the older generations are being exposed as nothing more than lies.
This can be framed as optimism vs pessimism but how can optimism have a chance to fight when the future feels bleak from a holistic standpoint. This is not to say do not have hope but the older generation has given us a lot to tackle in terms of doing anything different whether it be reducing waste, stopping consumerism, discontinuing the use of fossil fuels, a decline in social interaction, to so many things leading to youth depression. I do believe their is hope but not in the way we are doing things or how things have been done in the past.
Someone had to do something deemed “impossible” in the past for us to get here and we have to do something different today which will be deemed as “impossible” because it is not traditional. I could go on and on about the countless times someone or some people completed the impossible and changed the course of history but that is not necessary as my favorite line is we have iPhone and Internet. Due to government spending on different projects and the collaboration of people working on such projects that yielded the advancement of things we have today.
Now back to the original plot of this movie I understand that doing what has been done before leads to expected results and outcomes but that is not always the case for everyone, refer back to survivorship bias, but in my mind it appears that is leads to no one trying something new and different because of the unknown results that can arise. It also leads me to believe that people are content with the current lifestyle as it benefits them in some way even if it does oppress them in others.
I was a bit hurt by my friends words to me when I asked for help but I did some self reflection to figure out why it did hurt me and I think it lead to this article but I have come to the conclusion there is no good or bad answer for my question at the beginning. Safety and security are nice to have, but is complacency leading to no new growth or self development? In my journey I have learned a lot about myself and things I can do especially when times get tough and that may not be a goal for others but I would like to get rid of the stigma that stability and security are better than the unknown. They are equal opposites and lead to different outcomes for everyone and just because I find tradition boring does not mean someone can not find it exciting and that is perfectly fine.
