" Our era is a birth-time, and a period of transition. The spirit of man has broken with the old order of things...and with the old ways of thinking, and is of the mind to let them all sink into the depth of the past and to set about its own transformation....the frivolity and boredom which unsettle the established order, the vague foreboding of something unknown, these are the heralds of approaching change. "
Any guess with the name of the author and the time? Talib ? Bill Gates ? Michel Porter ? Roger Martin ? Time - circa 2019 - 2021 ? Nay...Nay...Nay...
The author of the piece above Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher and is considered one of the most important figures in German idealism. In 1850, about a 171 years seperated from the Covid era, he said something that as you as you read, would have momentarily made you believe it was written by some new- fangled Covid Era thought leader sharing experiences of the times we live in.
What is critical is its likeness and resemblance with experiences of the last 20 months of our times. See the 5 distinct similarities of experiences :
1. The time albeit separated by years being thought of as the 'birth-time of transitions'
2. Breaking of the spirit of men with destruction of the old order of things and old ways of thinking
3. Experiencing anxiety & frivolity
4. Sinking the old way of thinking and setting about new transformation journeys
5. The heightened anxiety of things not known that unsettles the established order.
Lessons to be learnt are obvious. Our universe is perpetually in a state of transformation. Each generation believes that it exists in the cusp and is singularly experiencing unique transformations not experienced hitherto before.
Good news is that despite exagerrated foreboding of the unknown, progress on the new path becomes an acceptable way of life. People and Universe thence progress and thus emerge winners in the new unknown era.