Draft Archives: “Don’t ever change”
This entry is the first in my “Draft Archives” series, consisting of previously unpublished draft posts. They represent various underdeveloped thoughts, ideas, and musings that I never fleshed out, and as such they are quite short. Still, I found them to be interesting at the time, and I hope they make you think a little when you read them. Enjoy!
I wonder sometimes if human beings are capable of fundamentally altering themselves. Psychology tells us that a lot of “who we are” is something that’s mostly solidified by the time we’re six or seven. When we seem like we’ve made some sort of drastic change (from the perspective of those around us) have we really “changed,” or is the old person still somewhere under our skin? How much control do we have post-childhood of our own personalities and behaviors?
I think people are always changing, whether they like it or not — I for one am significantly different now, from how I was ten, or even five years ago. Part of this was simply the toll that the passage of time takes upon a person, though part was due to conscious effort to change in certain ways.
I suppose it depends on a level of willingness, however. Your average person won’t want to change a great deal; indeed, the idea of changing oneself entirely could be quite a disturbing prospect to many. But if a person really puts the effort in to change, I think even “hard-coded” factors that may come to be during early childhood could eventually be weeded out or modified.
But then, I’m just speaking from personal experience here, I’m no psychologist. Perhaps others aren’t quite as pliable as I find myself to be.
Gravecat
13 Apr 08 at 9:52 pm
A standard tennent of many fundimentalist Christian churches is that people cannot change themselves but that God can. Small changes, yes, people can make them on their own but not fundamental changes in who they are deep down inside. That, so the faith goes, can only happen with God’s help. I’ve seen great changes come in the lives of people who find Jesus. I think people can make some changes on their own. Where does the line come where people can’t make a change without something external? I have no idea.
Mr. T
13 Apr 08 at 11:03 pm
@ Mr. T:
Regarding a line past which something external is needed for a change; is that because people are unable to change without external influence, or because people are generally unwilling to, yet certain external influences (whether positive or negative) *force* change upon people whether they like it or not?
Just a thought, anyway.
Gravecat
14 Apr 08 at 11:27 am