The Times, They Are A-Changin’. Still, And Not Fast Enough.

Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A Changin” may be emblematic of a certain time and space, but decades later, it still packs a punch. It’s this amazing dialogue between youthful progress and stubborn adherence to the status quo. Respect to Mr. Dylan for capturing something so universal in a mere three minutes and fifteen seconds.

It’s been on heavy rotation in my head lately (I tend to have rather that kind of ear worm). Dylan’s tune came out a while before I showed up in the world, but it still struck something in me as a teenager/20-something. Like many of my generation, I wanted things to change. The same set of cracks in the foundation that threaten us today were there “back then” as well, and although my generation had the youthful energy to try to do something, we were shushed a few too many times. Some of us begrudgingly settled into the status quo, and some of us kept resisting in whatever ways we could. I don’t think any of us ever saw the change we’d hoped for.

This is one of those tunes, like Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”, that allows the listener to feel something very different, but equally poignant, over the span of decades. I am now part of the older contingent to which the younger voice in this song pleads. I’m one of the writers and critics. I’m part of the mothers and fathers who are being asked to “not criticize what you don’t understand.” I’m the old person who may no longer be the major source of change, but can still choose to interfere or to support. I’m set on doing my level best to “get out of the new road”, though I’d like to think it isn’t too late for me to also lend a hand.

In ways I can’t entirely identify or quantify, there are glimmers of hope and change from younger thinkers right now. I’m thrilled to hear of emerging younger leaders at the helm of major cities, who are just doing things differently, thoughtfully, and without apology. I’m reassured by Gen Z’s resistance to big scary stuff like looming AI and over-reliance on technology. There’s something powerful about younger voices speaking out about climate change, something heartening about budding scientists as young as 13 coming up with viable solutions for both environmental threats and health crises. I see young faces contesting human rights violations, both in mass protests and online. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but it feels like the generations that came after us just aren’t willing to settle anymore. They’re acting out this song in real time.

Decades ago, when I was the on the younger sides of this dialogue, all of these challenges existed in one form or another. Decades before that, when this song was first released, these changes were afoot, waiting to happen. The times have been a’changin’ for so long, and yet, we’ve never collectively got over the hump. There isn’t enough time or room here to explore why the generation before us, the one that originally heard Dylan sing these words, didn’t bring about change. Lines like “For the loser now will be later to win” and “The first one now will later be last” have been hanging in the air, fraught with anticipation, for so long.

My generation, like the one before, saw things that needed to go, that needed to evolve, and then we saw things get stuck and stagnant. I’m still trying to understand why we couldn’t flip the switch. It probably had a lot to do with our comparatively small numbers, and our lack of economic power. It’s most definitely part of why Gen X is known to be on the bitter and cynical side. I think we tried. I hope we continue to try.

I don’t envy what younger folks have to contend with. Things at the moment are so precarious, so polarizing, so dehumanizing. And then there’s the pushback, from those who’ve overstayed their welcome, or who have done nothing to earn the power they wield. It’s going to take so much time and effort, so much collaboration to right what’s gone astray.

But I confess, I do envy that they have…presence, I guess, the numbers and maybe even the tools to get something done. They’ve been raised with an awareness of what goes on in the world, and they have a better understanding of demons, their own, and those they will inherit and have to manage. They have the wherewithal to recognize when they’re being lied to or pushed aside.

I fully intend to take my envy and sculpt it into something helpful. Even boxed up and pushed into a dark corner, I still have the capacity to support and encourage, to not interfere and not judge, to not “criticize what I don’t understand” (though I very badly want to understand). I can also share, from experience, that although we can expect change to be awkward and painful, an absence of change, decades of trying to move the needle and not seeing results, is so much worse. I’d like nothing more than to listen to Dylan’s song again in another three decades, and finally see that’s it’s come to fruition.