Times Change, People Don't

As seasons change, so do people. It seems almost impossible to think of human beings as group who are satisfied with their current situation. We always want more, and we always want better. Not that it is a bad thing, although it does carry the potential. We have evolved from hunter-gather societies, to a collection of super-power nations, seemingly doing as they please, using other nations almost like pawns in a chess game.
My senior year in high school, I had an English teacher who taught the idea that, “Times change, people don’t.” In a way she was right. Generally, people have always wanted the same things out of life, just go about them with different means. Even when you consider literary eras, all form of textual art seems to be a mixed expression of feelings and emotions attempting to explain an upside-down world, this comes from the generalized perspective of an amateur.
Think about that though, “Times change, people don’t.” Our styles of clothing and music have changed dramatically over the past thirty years, but we are identical to the people then in the sense that we are surviving to be happy, loved, healthy, so on and so forth. On a certain level though, I do have a problem with this idea, because it seems to take all the bad things we have done as a species, and almost blame them on our genetics. Although, I can see how people can mistakenly take this approach, the statement of people not changing is not meant to be taken as a law of human society.
Sure we change! We adapt and grow to new ideas, laws that were deemed Constitutionally sound only half a century ago, not reflect societal awareness, changing to fit the needs and wants of people. The idea behind the statement is still there: we all want the same things out of life and out of each other. Regardless what you label an era in art, or cultural revolution, the same basic underlying principles have always been there.