Candidates for office talk a lot about bringing manufacturing jobs back to America. I, too, wish we could bring them back, and it really makes me angry when companies move their operations out of the country.
What we have to remember, unfortunately, is that many manufacturing jobs are not just disappearing from our own soil, they are disappearing altogether. Technology and innovation have helped bring about the loss of good manufacturing jobs that enabled millions of Americans to rise to the middle class. In their place are new jobs, but they require new skill sets and not everyone will have the opportunity to adapt.
The agriculture sector has experienced the same thing. We’re realizing that we are never going back to the way of life we older adults experienced on the farm. In those days, farm families worked and played together, ate all our meals together and were satisfied with modest means. But that was before farms grew from a few hundred acres to thousands of acres and machinery began costing more than a house.
We’ll never again experience small town living as it was 50 years ago, either. Although we continue to try to recapture this past lifestyle, we’ve never been very successful at turning back the clock. We simply don’t have enough people in rural areas to sustain schools and churches, and prevent main street businesses from losing their shoppers to Wal-Mart and city malls. Extraordinary efforts are made to revitalize our communities, but sometimes it’s just not possible to stem a tide.
Although it’s hard for some of us to adjust to loss and decline, many people readily accept change as inevitable. They live their lives, not by looking back, but always looking forward. When a door closes, they open the next door, and it makes them more durable, more resilient to the ups and downs that come naturally in life.
When a tradition is no longer useful to these people, they simply make new traditions. They don’t seem to fear innovation and change, so they embrace new technology, new ideas and accept new people more easily into their lives. They willingly expose themselves to new experiences and frankly are bored by old experiences. They’re comfortable with the new and they don’t spend a lot of time fretting about the old.
Although most of us accept change much like these folks do, it’s still possible to sympathize with those among us who are upset at how different our way of life has become. We can all relate to their pain of losing something they hold dear, and we know it sometimes explains the need to look for a scapegoat. It can explain the need to blame the so-called establishment, or the government or anybody else in charge. It can also explain the need to blame foreigners or people who look different, or anyone who thinks or worships differently than we do.
I guess this is human nature, but it’s not a very admirable aspect of human nature. Sometimes it can look ugly and sound ugly, and it does nothing to help someone move on with their lives. This kind of thinking prevents them from making the adjustments that will be necessary if they’re going to have a productive life.
People have always complained about change. There were those who didn’t want to give up horses for the new-fangled machines called tractors. There are those who have been fighting consolidation of schools, going as far back as the one-room schoolhouses. There are those who hate computers and the new ways of teaching math and the use of technology to teach science and literature. And there are those who have always resented immigrants coming to America, just like those people today that fear Hispanics and Syrians and people of color moving into our communities. At one time, it was Irish immigrants who were hated and rejected.
This fear is usually based on a belief that something is being taken from us. It causes us to waste valuable time digging in our heels when we should be stepping forward. Many of us are finding out, however, when we resist change, we get left behind.