Progressives and liberals like to criticize conservatives for being antiquarian and stuck in the past. These charges, if they are honest at all, rest on the shaky assumption that all change is progress.
H.L Mencken stated it better than I (or anybody else, for that matter) ever could:
The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth – that the error and the truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it is cure of one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.
The left’s attitude that the status quo is always bad or in need of change has caused some of the worst atrocities the world has ever known.
As the great poet, sage and political philosopher, Samuel Johnson, famously put it:
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
I agree with Mencken that it’s a mistake to assume that a new idea is superior to an old idea simply because it is new.
For me, time-tested tradition is a better (albeit imperfect) guide to the future than are the fleeting fashions of the age.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Julie Pappas // Oct 27, 2009 at 4:40 pm
I agree that change for the sake of change is not always progress. The very definition of progress is movement towards the goal or further stage. Without thoughtful and deliberate action with the finish in mind , the best ideas, bills, policies, programs and laws become disjointed and many times hi-jacked with side bar and personal agendas. But change is good, just, required and needed when the goal is to improve the past or current situation of an individual, group, or people.
“Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress.” Thomas Edison
2 Peter // Oct 27, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Julie,
Whats for dinner tonight?
LOL.
Leave a Comment