What does "the more things change the more they stay the same" mean?

its true what most people have said...but i'll also add my bit which is:

It is a statement to highlight the IRONY in life that no matter how much we think we've progressed, we're pretty much where we started (sort of an underlying tone of futility to everything, or purposelessness).

For instance, we have so many computers after the guy who invented it, said it would never be required to produce computers en masse, nowadays we know the score...

Also, we are supposed to have moved towards a paper free society, after all, we can text or email or probably even telepathically order our thoughts, yet, a WILL and Testament is only recognized in WRITING with a signature to it... or when we sell or buy a car / home, we still have to sign papers and keep a copy for "safety's sake". Maybe one day we'll be able to do all these things online and it'll be recognized as valid by law?

We still have a post office, which we had in days of old, we had letter bearers thousands of years ago, not much has changed...

We're supposed to have more time on our hands because half our lives are remote controlled, but it seems we have less time to talk and get to know the people up our own street. In the olden days, people had a longer life span cause life was slower paced, and they still got things done?!

So, some people take the view that, the more things change, the more they stay the same...essentially though, we merely go through cycles of progress, in really primitive days, men were the "breadwinners" or providers in society, and women the homemakers...nowadays, statistics prove men are emotionally weaker than females and they tend to have a higher suicide rate / nervous breakdown rate etc. more women work...perhaps the focus has sharply shifted to females empowerment? but then there's the new era of kids and how they abuse their rights to manipulate things in society, their education, teachers who are restricted in disciplining them, parents who either lack the know how or skill to discipline their own kids (how MANY are the programmes on tv "supernanny" and the like, that show that some kids destroy entire families and then the parents sit by helpless and at a loss for things to do to "repair" the problem they had indirectly caused...) oh well, i could write an entire book on this one irony alone, but, for now, i'll go and get some tea

Things are constantly changing, but human nature tends to say the same...so even in the midst of all the changes, much stays the same in the way people behave...

It's a non-sequitor. But it's based on the idea that things happen in cycles, and that no matter how much things change, eventually they will return to where they started - and be the same as they once were.

Fashion is a good example of this; short skirts, long skirts. Tight pants baggy pants. Wide lapels narrow lapels. Pointy shoes, round toe shoes, etc.

Another way to say it is; eventually everything old is new again!

that no matter how many times things change, there is always the constant, from the beginning, that makes it the same no matter where or when..... the more it changes, the more it stays the same

Everything has always changed so the fact that everything is still changing means that everything is going as it always has.

In a nut shell;- the same old same old.

it's the layman's argument for legalizing cannabis see:

http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4396

. . . poor erection? . . .