The Calculus of Change

In most post-modern business, economic and social circles ‘growth’ is a holy cow. However consider what environmentalist Edward Abbey once said “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell”. Could it be that an unconsidered chase after growth has been the cause of dysfunctionality in many of our social, economic and business systems and organizations? Technology has enabled accelerated growth in almost all fields of human endeavor but has this growth been all in the right direction? Take the growing ability to cover long distances with the minimal of physical effort. The direction this growth has taken has produced among other things a sharp spike in lifestyle diseases, road rage, pollution and the corrosive and distorting politics of oil. Let’s go a tad deeper into the realm of personal growth. Isn't the chase after more power, more fame, more money to the detriment of all other dimensions of growth a cancerous affliction of the human spirit? What we perhaps need to revisit is the calculus of growth. Our growth paradigm today is differentiation. The rate of change towards a mad hurtle towards the ‘more’. Shift to integration in the calculus of change and we get back to the gestalt: the complete view. And then we perceive that there is constant beyond change that sums up to health and happiness. Easier said than done. Nevertheless, good to remember and revisit, now and then.