Change is the cornerstone of the very concept of biological evolution. Without change, this whole spectrum of colorful life pulsating on earth would probably have been mere figments of dreams in the Creator’s psyche. The same science that suggests evolution also tells us that the change from nothing someday to something today, has taken millions of years to unfold.
But in the tiny speckle of time that we humans get on this earth, we see a smallest fraction of this change manifesting itself in the petty thing that we so fondly call “The Generation Gap”. If we apply the basic logic behind the change and resulting evolution to the question--why every new generation wants to do something different from the previous one, this whole phenomenon seems to make perfect, even inevitable and desirable, sense.
But interestingly, what apparently remains unexplained through this line of ‘evolution’ary thinking is this—Why does the previous generation resist the change!!!
The answer might lie in Statistics!
What is the success rate of mutations? Define this question the way you want, but the irrefutable fact remains that a pathetically low fraction of mutations actually do end up being the more adapted ones in the surroundings. What happens to the huge gamut of unsuccessful attempts at being “something better”? Those individuals perish…without doubt, without mercy…they perish. They become the sacrificial offerings to the greater, more powerful force of change required for the species.
But this race for survival when seen at the microscopic level of each individual translates into the survival of ‘Me’ and ‘My kind’. Thus with such high odds against the success of the “different”; it’s not entirely unexpected that man, the intelligent being, gets protective of his own kind, protecting his child even from the most basic instincts—to fearlessly try to Change and to Improve.
