Originally published at crisis magazine

I am tired of new ideas. I don’t mean to say that I’m tired of learning. Nor do I mean that I don’t appreciate fresh takes on old subjects. But the constant reinvention of the wheel has worn me out. There is no need to reconfigure my mental space for the sake of being “up to date” or “informed.” If something has proved its worth, then it ought to be held dear and passed on. Anything else gets exhausting after a short while. I am tired of new ideas. 

I think that societies also begin to grow weary of new things. If every generation has to reevaluate its core beliefs, eventually this work is going to become tedious. If every person has to subjectively determine their own identity, ultimately self-identification will become exhausting. I’m afraid that this might be the case with our society. 

We’ve inherited a culture based on constant change: change your style, change your phone, change your home, change your spouse, change your gender, change your politics, change your diet, change your everything and anything. But if nothing is stable and everything is in flux, where do you start? And where do you stop? The image that

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