It's
Human Nature
Accepting change with an open mind--by
David B. South, Jr.
reprinted from The Monolithic Dome Roundup winter 2000
Next time you drive to work, school, or home, carefully examine the buildings you pass by everyday and ask yourself a few questions. Are these buildings attractive? Are they ugly? Have you ever looked at them before?
If you are like me, you ignore nearly all of them. Industrial buildings, restaurants, gas stations, and more are just a big blur in the windshield.
It's human nature. We become used to the environment around us. Add to that, telephone poles, electrical substations, road work, smog, all the things that line the road and all of it is ignored.
Then a dome is inflated. It practically stops traffic. Heads turn, mouths drop, and thoughts of "what in the world?" pop into passersby.
It's different. It's not part of the customary background. It is not what we are used to. And chances are that when you first see it, you probably won't like it. That's human nature too. We don't take kindly to change. It shakes us up and forces us to examine something we normally don't think about - a building.
Familiarity may or may not breed contempt, but it definitely breeds comfort.
But if this is human nature, what's wrong with it? Remember those buildings we drive by and ignore? We ignore them because we're used to them. But that's not all we're used to. We're used to all their problems and failings as well, and because we're used to them, we ignore them.
We not only ignore developments such as leaky roofs and sagging floors we actually expect and accept them.
And therein lies the problem. When examining something new, something different, it is human nature to look for any problem as an excuse to dismiss the whole thing. No structure, dome or otherwise, is perfect. No matter how good the building is, no matter how it may improve on its neighbor, it will have flaws. And any real or perceived flaw may be the excuse needed to dismiss the dome entirely.
Any beneficial change will be thwarted without an open mind. Fair comparisons and analysis are required to measure the strengths and weaknesses of the Monolithic Dome. And these results must be compared with other buildings used for a similar purpose. It is surprising how many "flaws" are actually design decisions or misunderstandings. Only after we see things as they really are can we judge whether it is worthy of acceptance.
And, one day we will drive by scores of Monolithic Domes and never notice them because it's human nature to accept what we are used to.
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