Time brings change... only if you make the change

Came across some reading about change and thought of sharing this adage with you. Many say that time brings about change and that people change with time. But is it really time that brings about the change, or is the people. Pondering about this riddle leads me to conclude that change depends on the extent people want to change. For example in the classical martial arts, people endeavour to dig deeper and endeavour to gain more understanding without changing the tradition, culture, spirit and technique of the art. Is this right or wrong? Others have retained the moves and Japanese terminology, but changed the art into a competitive sport. The attitude and also techniques have been remodelled so as to accommodate spectators' expectations. Athletes still bow to each other before contesting for the podium, but many times, this is just a formality. The contest is an exhibition of the athletes' skill to perform within the furthest limits of the rules, as with any other competitive sport. This is fine, but different to the classical or traditional art, when students of it were practicing for life, not for competition the results of which are just a snapshot of one particular moment, and which are confined within the perimeter of the rules of the game. Is time that changed the martial arts, in this case, or is it the people. It could be argued that time rendered the study of martial arts for defence and for life less important, and people's quality of adapting to change, preserved an otherwise close-to-extinction art by modifying it into a sport with specific competition rules. But considering on the other side of the argument that there are still people like myself, who are fascinated by the culture, the spirit and the tradition of the martial arts of Japan, and who therefore preserved them for future generations, as they were. Research and practice are directed towards deeper understanding and self-perfection, rather than to develop into something new. It is very much like heritage groups who organise re-enactments as faithful as possible to how historic events actually happened. I think many people are still fascinated by this anyway.

As the Jack Daniels commercial says, 'Some things never change... Jack Daniels is one of them!' This is a typical example of how this entity built a reputation for itself and perhaps made it its competitive advantage. Lesson is that even if the Darwinian Theory on change and adaptation holds true, and in business, we are taught how to carry out external and internal analysis and reviews to come up with the SWOT analysis and then to chisell the corporate strategy, certain entities choose to stick to tradition. Needless to say, they do this only because their market analysis reveals that the market is still receptive and responsive to their product or service, even if sticking staunchly to tradition and refusing change.

So I am inclined to conclude that people make changes because of time and depending on what they percieve needs change. I am a person with a generous appetite for change, but I would not change the traditional values and methods of classical karate just to adapt to today's world. Reason is that I am passionate about the the origin of the legacy that was handed down to us by masters of the art who dedicated their lives to the study of the art.