Change is always happening, and people’s reactions to it are fairly constant. The individual players might change, but the system remains.
Hate your old, ugly car? Buy a shiny new one! A few years later, you’re back to hating your old, ugly car.
Don’t like the smug bastards in power? Vote them out! Then you can be the smug bastards in power, and others won’t like you.
SSDD.
Etc.
It’s easy to notice when something changes. It takes time and a sequence of changes to be able to realize which parts do not change. The longer you observe something, the better you can be at noticing the parts that remain constant.
The phrase is often used in contexts when you want to highlight your understanding of the fact that the change you are observing is just superficial and nothing important actually changed. E.g., an opposition party wins the elections; a tech company switches to a hot new framework for their new product; a new year of students enters the university; or a disposable razor company comes out with a new model that has five blades instead of four.
It means that although things seem to be changing on the surface, the fundamental nature of the situation is the same. For example, new technology is developed that makes manufacturing much more efficient…but the workers still have to work just as long and hard for the same amount of pay. A new politician comes to power and makes lots of radical changes…but the rich still get richer while the poor are worse off.
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