Change and Needs

It is said that change is the only phenomenon that remains constant in nature. It was there and it would be here till the existence of human and universe. Here we are going to see that what is change and from where does it appear and how does it affect our lives. In the end we will analyze change process in China’s perspective.
In my opinion anything that has gotten a variation with respect to time, is under change process. It doesn’t matter if the time is measured in years, months, hours or even seconds. Change is measureable at each scale. It is a continuous process that takes us with itself, whether we are willing or not. And sometimes we ourselves are the cause of its happening.
According to the basic principle of philosophy which describes that every cause has an effect and vice versa. This principle is directly applicable to this change process. It means that there is always a cause associated with change. So this cause-effect cycle will continue and will remain till all causes are converted into effects. Here if we want to analyze the change cycle, it would not be that much easy. If it would be that much easy then all changes would be 100% predictable and measureable and we would be living in a different world. For example a falling leaf in Autumn undergoes a very long cycle of change. Falling from a tree and reaching till ground, it undergoes a change. But how did it happen? And why did it happen and when exactly should it happen? Answer to these questions is really a long story. We will have to go through all related biological changes that it had. Even then we may not comprehend this change in an accurate manner.
So far we discussed the nature of change. Now there is another aspect of this issue. We all human beings undergo a process of change throughout our lives. From infants to teenagers and from teenagers to mature man/woman and finally grow old and meet death. In all these phases of human life and development, we undergo change in variety of dimensions like body, shapes, understanding levels, wisdom and thoughts. Here there is a question that if I can remain a child for a number of years or stay a teenager for long time and just don’t change myself at all? The answer is no. If I like or dislike, I have to grow older and older physically with time. But if I don’t want to increase my understanding level, it is somehow possible. These facts give out a principle that certain changes can be controlled and some can not. In my opinion, the changes that we control to some extent are determined by level of our needs associated with them. For example if I want to lead a good life, I should develop my level of understanding. It will help me to know the world around me and will help me to get my bread and butter. So my needs act as a cause and the effect is change in my level of understanding. Here is a point which suggests that sometimes needs determine the extent and path of a change process. In short some kinds of changes affect us and we affect changes too.
As we concluded that one kind of change is connected with our needs. These needs may be social, cultural, political, religious and even physical in some cases. In my opinion this is the major reason of world technological developments, major inventions, discoveries and a lot of political and social upsets in this world. This theory can easily explain a lot of world issues from Afghanistan war to a street quarrels. So in global perspective, major developments and changes are driven by the needs. It is also important to note that several times conflict of needs brings destruction on a large scale. The world major destructive events including world wars can be explained on this basis.
China in general has gone through a number of large scale changes. The opening of reforms, modern construction, infrastructure development, industrial developments, and adoption of modern western culture are the few examples quoted here. If we just raise a question with out going into discussion of right or wrong, that why these changes happened, it would give its answer itself. In principle, the major drive behind these changes was needs. The needs guided everything to a direction that ultimately brought such changes in Chinese society. During recent years, such changes are very significant. Now a lot of Chinese people can speak very good English which many times surprise foreigners. If we talk about the clothing, all major western brands are available in China. Same about food, we can find almost everything in China. Such kind of data indicates some important facts that all lead to a conclusion that needs are growing rapidly and change is making its way very fast.