The Freedom to Disrupt Yourself

… all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. — Declaration of Independence

The founding fathers believed that human dignity demands a set of fundamental rights. They believed that the best way to protect these rights was by establishing “governments” — aka a set of systems and rules that organized people and power under principles that would protect the rights of all.

The founders also recognized that nothing works forever. That even the most solid systems can break down and even the best solutions might eventually fail to uphold their promise.

When this happens, the logical and prudent response is to re-build from the ground up.

As they stated in the Declaration of Independence:

whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends [of promoting the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness], it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The idea that if a system is failing we should rebuild it would not be controversial but for a quirk of human behavior.

The founders were astute observers of human behavior; specifically, our tendency to stay in suffering rather trying something new.

Often this is because we value consistency over all else. We don’t want to appear cavalier or non-committal by pivoting to something new.

Even back then, apparently, the culture used consistency as a virtue signal.

As the founders noted,

… all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. — Declaration of Independence

To state it plainly: we have a habit of choosing suffering over pivoting. We are loathe to disrupt the status quo — even when the status quo isn’t working.

The Foolishness of Consistency

To be sure, consistency certainly has its place.

And, as Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in his 1841 essay, Self-Reliance,

a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

Emerson believed that today’s intuition could be more important than yesterday’s conclusions. He viewed the unwillingness to reconsider beliefs as a sign of narrow-mindedness. A fear of contradicting past thoughts was a “hobgoblin” — a troublesome creature that limited the mind and the soul.

It’s the nature of the mind both to evolve and to cling to what it knows. The consistency of routine and rituals can be grounding and regulating. Consistency in structures and rules gives us a feeling of security and safety.

Yet the aim of consistency can also cause us to cling too long to what isn’t working.

Uranus in Taurus: The Tension Between Consistency and Evolution

The tension between consistency and evolution has been percolating since 2018, when the planet Uranus first entered the sign of Taurus.

Uranus is the disruptor. It is the energy that wants to abolish the established systems and structures in favor of new experiments. It’s purpose is to foster our liberation from what isn’t working — to set us free from a status quo that is failing.

Taurus is a fixed earth sign that is is dependable, reliable, consistent. It’s our rooting, our grounding, our security. It clings to the status quo, resisting change.

What opportunities do we miss while we are trying to hold tightly to a ground that is shifting beneath us?

At what point does consistency become a constraint that discourages our impulse to experiment, diminishes our innate curiosity, and deflects our natural evolution?

At what point do we concede that the current system isn’t working, and that we must we uproot what we’ve built to create a new framework?

On July 4, 2025, as the United States celebrates the publication of the Declaration of Independence and birth of its nation, these questions rise to the surface as Uranus meets up with Venus — the ruler of Taurus — at 29°52’ Taurus.

This is the final minutes of the last degree of the sign. It’s a culmination point, a punctuation mark, and an ending of a chapter — albeit one we will revisit one more time in April 2026, at virtually the same place (29º53’).

We are on the cusp of a new chapter — one that favors and encourages disruption.