Bennot Schmidt, Jr. was the President of Yale University in the early 1990s. The following is quoted from his baccalaureate address of 1992 to the students of Yale College, reflection requires response and a sense of coherence nurtured by stability. Rapid change promotes instability and incoherence. Radical change threatens disorder. Disorder breeds fear.
Fear tends to cause that hunkering down in self interest that withers civic virtue.
In effect, that change is uncomfortable and requires careful thought and a large degree of tolerance. Or as Pascal noted, A suspension of disbelief. As ASDC and AAPD move together toward merger, the seeming suddenness has caused some to hunker down for fear of loss of identity or other possible frightening effects of rapid change. Others have looked forward to the potential for geometric increase in the synergy of generalists and pediatric dentists together addressing the shortage of access. We all must look within and identify what Schmidt saw as a contest between hunkering down in self interest or embracing change in the quest for classic civic virtues.