"Is Change Good or Bad" Essay

Elliott Weinberg
1/28/10
Change essay
It is hard to say that change is either all good or all bad. We know that change is often good and necessary. Every advance we have made in science, art, and literature has been based somehow on change. Change, however, can also be bad. This can happen if the change happens too fast. Another way change can be bad is if the change is outside of our control like a natural disaster. I will be talking about and explaining how change can be both good and bad in this article.
One example of how a change can be both good and bad would be the advances in technology. This could apply to the creation of the internet. The good side of this change is that it is a very powerful tool in connecting people together and making information available to anyone who can get to a computer. The internet has changed the way many companies do business and makes it easy to buy things and do banking. The bad part of this change is that it happened so fast that the security needed to protect people on the internet and the laws that should apply to doing business this way were not in place before people started using it. This resulted in the whole problem with identity theft and some types of cyber-crimes happening and no one being able to control or punish the criminals. This has resulted in many people being victims of these types of crime, some businesses losing a lot of money, and many other economic problems.
Sometimes it is the way change happens that make it good or bad. Change that we can control, like studying diseases, can be very good. Changes in the way we looked at diseases have led to many great advances like understanding the way diseases spread and the development of vaccines. Without these advances, many people would still be suffering from smallpox and polio. People could even still be dying in mass numbers by the black plague and even just the common cold if we didn’t have changes in medicine or equipment to help them.
Changes that we can’t control can be bad and deadly. Severe changes in the weather can make life very difficult. In the 1930s there was a drought in the Midwest that turned the once fertile farm land into a “dust bowl”. This drought was so severe that the drought lasted till 1938 and for some areas even till 1940. Another recent example of a change that we couldn’t control that turned out bad would be the recent earthquake in Haiti. This was a natural disaster that we could not see coming. There was no possible way that we could control this. Even though this is a bad change, the good that has come out of it is the way everyone has pulled together to help the victim. We have helped the people of Haiti by donating money, food, or clothing to them. We can also use our skills like doctors can help heal the injured people. The construction workers can help rebuild parts of the city that were lost in the earthquake. This is an example of a change that is good because we can control it.
Another way that change can be bad is when change is too drastic to handle. An example of this is when a government is overthrown by military force. In this case, the change happens very fast and is very drastic. This change does not only affect the government, but can have drastic changes on the people who live in that country and their way of life. Two big affects that can come out of this happening are the collapse of the economy of the area and the loss of various freedoms for the people. In the United States, there is a peaceful transition of leadership through the election process. This process is not drastic and keeps the government and economy operating smoothly through the process. Because it is controlled, this change is a good one.
One change that we contributed to, but cannot seem to control, is the affect of climate change. The bad thing about this change is that it could threaten everything we have on this planet. If we don’t get control of this change, it could be very devastating. Even though some people do not believe in global warming, there is a possibility that it is true. It is clear that the ice caps are melting and we have to do something about it now before it cannot be stopped. The climate has been changing over the past years and there has been proof of this, so no matter what you believe in we will have to face this problem eventually. The good side of this change is that because people are becoming aware of the problem, there is a lot more recycling being done and people are trying to conserve things like energy and natural resources. By doing this, there will be more resources available for future generations and the world will be a much cleaner environment to live in.
I have looked at some ways that change can be good or bad. Sometimes good and bad are more due to the way the change happens, like fast or slow, or controlled or uncontrolled, than being due to what’s being changed. In many cases, change is both good and bad based on the way various people look at it. I recently saw a sign on a wall that said, “If there was no change, there would be no butterflies”. This statement is both simple and true. My opinion on change is that it is necessary and it is also a burden. Some change results in bad things happening but there are also so many good things that have come out of change. Most of the time, we have conquered the problems that may come with change and every one we conquer guides us further into our next step forward. Without change, we could have no progress.

Citations: "Dust Bowl -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 30 Jan. 2010. .

"Climate Change | U.S. EPA." U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Web. 30 Jan. 2010. .

"File:Drought Swimming Hole.JPG -." Wikimedia Commons. Web. 30 Jan. 2010. .