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 At the end of our class on Thursday, we were discussing whether or not cultural change was intentional, or conscious. We agreed that Civil Rights Movements that caused change were conscious, but couldn't agree as a class whether or not the latest fashion trends were. I can't get this off my mind.

It occurred to me as I was thinking about the nature of conscious or unconscious change, that conscious actions ALWAYS result in unconscious change. That is to say, every conscious action made may effect some premeditated change, but it also necessarily creates unexpected change. When I walk into the classroom, I don't intend to dirty the floor, but it inevitably happens. Or, a cultural example would be the Feminist Movement of the Sixties. The movement created the premeditated change of allowing women into the workplace and out of the homes (read Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique for more info). However this movement also created the unexpected "second shift," where women were not only expected to work their paying jobs, but expected to continue assuming all or most of the domestic work as well (Arlie Hochschild, The Second Shift).

This line of thought provoked me to remember the saying, "You can never step in the same river twice." I used to comprehend this adage by thinking of the fact that the river is always flowing, so it is always changing. However, in thinking about the idea of conscious and unconscious change, I began reinterpreting this to mean that you necessarily change the river. Perhaps your reason for stepping in the river was to cool off, or perhaps you accidently stumbled into it, but your body necessarily changed the flow, whether you intended it to or not.

Is this making sense?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, in thinking of cultural change, I'm beginning to see how some changes are necessarily unintended, or coincidental. I'm not sure that I'm willing to accept them as random (taking "random" to mean that which is without reason), but I am willing to see how small accidents or by-products create huge changes in cultures. Like penicillin and cornflakes.