More and more people I meet have an indefinite feeling of unease, that their lives might be unbalanced, that maybe they should change something.

At first I thought that it must be an age thing and we joked about having a mid-twenties crisis. However, this seems not to be the case: at the NLP class there are people of all ages, many of them feeling this way.

There doesn't really seem to be a pattern as to who feels it, but there is a sense that things are not right. It is difficult to put ones finger on exactly what is not right, and no one seems to have a simple answer on how to make the feeling go away.

It's as if the tense music is building in a film, or like getting itchy feet. One description I heard: it is like a storm brewing and the longer that it brews the more you know that it's going to be a dramatic one!

One of the reasons I believe that the malaise is so general is that so much is wrong. Almost everything that we come into contact with is imperfect. The government lies with increasing complacency. The companies we deal with make it more and more obvious that they don't care. Everyone becomes more aggressive, introverted and scared.

The other reason that we feel this way, I believe, is that there is no obvious solution. Like having itchy feet with no destination in mind. Maybe this has lead to the profusion of self-help books…

There is a theory that great periods of change occur every so often. These periods of change (e.g. the industrial revolution) take 50-60 years to complete. The crucial thing is the most of the change is concentrated into the last decade, the revolutionary change in the last few years. These periods of great change involve things that move the whole human race forward on their path - societal evolution.

There is of course, always resistance to change. In the Deming Forum 2002, I saw this explanation of transformation:

For transformation to take place:

Note that the right side of the equation has each part multiplied. If any of the parts on the right are zero they cancel out the others no matter how strong (witness the struggle of the Iraqi people under Saddam - lots of dissatisfaction, but no change).

This can help us to explain why the change is concentrated in the last few years. The general feeling of dissatisfaction rises. It is much greater than the resistance to change, but is cancelled out by the low number of people with the other parts.

Then a new leader might supply the vision, or education seeps down to enough people to spread knowledge of the next steps, or maybe society is democratised and people are empowered to take those steps.

When dissatisfaction is high, small changes in vision, knowledge and capability can release the pent up waters and overcome the resistance to change.

We are supposedly in a time of great change now: the information revolution. This has been going on since the 50s and now we are entering the phase of greatest change. Maybe this is why we feel this unease, we are increasingly dissatisfied, but don't have the knowledge, vision or empowerment to change.

The information revolution is not about everyone having Internet access - it is about the new philosophy of knowledge - not just ubiquitous access to information for everyone, but the tools, methods of thinking and education to capitalise on it. Borders are irrelevant, VAT is unenforceable, copyright is obsolete, indoctrination is impossible, knowledge is no longer power to the few, but power to all.

This is why there is so much resistance; most structures rely on the controlled dissemination and manipulation of information. However more and more of us are feeling this general malaise, we are seeking vision and knowledge, the internet is one of many ways in which we are newly capable and the change will come.

Got a suggestion?, email Dave