Dinosaurs and rabbits: October 14, 1996 issue of New Thinking

October 14, 1996 New Thinking:
Dinosaurs and rabbits

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October 14, 1996

Dinosaurs and rabbits

By Gerry McGovern

Those who triumph most within a particular environment are by definition at a disadvantage when that environment changes dramatically.

The essence of life and living is your capacity to firstly adapt to and survive within a particular environment. If an environment retains a stable set of parameters over a long period of time, then what we will find is a certain number of species becoming large and dominant within that environment.

Over time they hone themselves within the environment, mastering it more by each day and generation. If the environment could be seen as a glove, then they are the hand with the snuggest fit into that glove. They reach out to fill it as much as they can. Literally, they grow large as they feed more and more off it.

When the environment changes dramatically, when the glove gets torn to shreds, they stand rather naked, with a hand that now looks grotesque and extra large within a new world. Where can they run to hide hide from the cold winds of change? They never had to hide before, so they don’t even want to hide, know how to hide.

They have a big appetite. Where has all the food gone? Much of the food has died, succumbing to the harsh conditions of the new environment. The food has gone into hiding. The small ones shelter, and find food wherever it can be found. In small places where small amounts of it remain. But that’s enough for some of the small ones to survive.

There is a new day and for some it is a bright new dawn. Things are not so harsh for them. The great change has made their historical weakness into a new strength. To be small is good as the new environment swirls and moves slowly towards a settling.

The large ones are battered constantly by the swirling. Their large, swift feet, which used to run after prey, now lumber aimlessly, their empty bellies dragging them down. If only they had half the appetite they might survive.

The largest die in their droves, littering the land with heavy carcasses. A bounty for the small ones. They watch the heavy lump, breath its final breath. They wait nervously, then slowly venture closer to their dead predator. A miracle: it’s meat will perhaps give them that extra bit of strength to survive the swirling; to survive until things settle down again.

Everything rises. Everything falls. Nothing goes on forever. To survive longer, you must be careful not to match yourself to closely to the environment you presently find yourself in. You must always be ready to change, and if possible anticipate and prepare for the coming change.

Today, we find ourselves just inside the doorstep of the digital age. We don’t really know what we will find inside. All we do know is that it will be different in fundamental ways from what we knew on the outside -- the inside of the Industrial Age.

Right now, the only thing that we know will remain constant is change. Therefore, to ensure survival we must constantly be prepared to change. In time, the digital age will settle and the large ones may well come to dominate the predictable environment.

While the swirl of change continues, however, it makes sense to be small and lean, to not need too much to survive, and to be inventive and adaptable enough to find new food in new places.

Gerry McGovern

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To survive longer, you must be careful not to match yourself to closely to the environment you presently find yourself in.