Friday, January 29, 2010

Is change a good thing or a bad thing?


Throughout history, people and cultures have changed and developed, and these growths have really helped the world’s people. Civilizations have developed form nomadic peoples who had to hunt for their food to civilized cultures with many inventive technologies. By learning how to adapt and become more efficient, people have been able to grow and become much more developed. Even today, there continues to be beneficial change. For example, new technologies are constantly helping nations develop and grow. New medicines are being invented that are saving many lives all the time. Change has helped humans adapt and develop in the past and still in the present. Because of this positive development, I think that change is a very good thing.

In very early history, the Paleolithic ages, the people were nomadic hunters and gatherers that followed their food wherever it went because this was the only way they would have anything to eat. Because of this lifestyle, only those among strongest and fastest of the group would catch their game. Therefore, they were always superior to the rest of the group and would always have more food. All they could really do with their time was hunt and try to find food, and as a result they did not have any time to do other things like develop new and helpful technologies. In order to develop, these people would need to change their nomadic lifestyle.

A very important change that took place was when people started to actually settle down and stay in one place. This is when the people started to form civilizations and cities. The people tended to settle where there was water readily available because it was needed for them to survive. Instead of having to hunt and kill all of their food, they started to farm and grown crops. Agriculture and farming became very important to them. Also, the people began to domesticate animals and use them for labor and other things. The animals were helpful with farm work, and they could also be killed and used for food. Farming and animal domestication is what ultimately allowed the people to settle down and stop following their food. Because of this, the people had more time to develop not only new and helpful technologies, but also culture and religion.

The technologies they developed, such as the ox-drawn plow helped them become even more efficient at farming and irrigation. They also found new ways to use and access the water they needed for their crops and for bathing and drinking. In addition to this, the people started to express themselves through art. This helped them to form their own cultural identities. Also, now that the people lived in permanent cities, they were able to start organized religion and practices. They could not perform rituals and worship their gods together in an organized way. When they were nomadic, they were not able to do this. There were also other great benefits to the people settling down and turning to agriculture. There were opportunities for all the people in the group, not just the fastest and the strongest. These were the ones who benefitted most before, but now everybody could have their own professions.

There were now both farmers and hunters, and they each wanted each other’s goods. This is how the civilizations started the idea of trade. The farmers needed meet and animals from the hunters, and the hunters needed crops like barley and wheat from the farmers. They didn’t only trade goods; they could also trade things like services and labor. The more the people and the civilizations developed, the more they traded and they began to actually specialize in certain things. The man that could grow the most wheat, for example, would have a lot of people who wanted to trade with him. As a result, he would have a lot more goods than some of the other people. Trading was a very important and beneficial change that happened when people settled into civilizations.

Another important new development that occurred after the people settled down was the invention of a government. The people began to have disputes and conflicts, so they needed to form laws and an official government. This helped them to resolve their conflicts and avoid any disputes. Established government developed even more and was a very useful change that still greatly affects us today. The settling down of the nomadic people to form new and permanent civilizations was the start of the Neolithic age, or new age, and it brought about many new and beneficial changes. It allowed them to start agricultural lives, which led to establishment of trade. This let them be able to specialize in a certain area of farming or hunting. This age helped the people develop new technologies, as well as cultures and religions. There were very many beneficial changes that took place during this time that helped the people to develop and form the basis for civilized societies. This shows that change is very good for development of the world’s people because it helps make their way of life easier, better, and more efficient.

Change did not only occur in the past when civilizations were just forming, it also occurs today and helps our nations continue to develop. For example, new advanced technologies like computers and the internet has helped people throughout the whole world become more connected. The idea of trade has also developed even more because nations all over the world can now trade their goods. Also some countries are much more developed than others, but because everything is globally connected now, countries that are less developed will be able to catch up to the more developed ones. Also, there are so many new technologies that have been developed that can help jobs become more efficient or even save somebody’s life. These are all benefits from changes that have occurred relatively recently, and even more changes and developments occur all the time. So much great development has come from changes in history that have helped the world’s people, and they all show that change is definitely a good thing.

2 comments:

  1. Your writing style is straightforward and strong, but would benefit from proper sourcing and citations. As it stands, without citations, you leave your argument open for debate and you have no specific evidence to support your claims.

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  2. i agree that change is good. good work. keep up the work.

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