I’ll keep it short and sweet. Here’s a quote with which I’d think most people could agree.
We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.
~CS Lewis
Discuss.
8 comments:
To paraphrase general Grant: "It is better to make a decision that turns out to be wrong than not to decide at all. If it is the wrong choice, it soon becomes apparent, and you can make adjustments." Grant was talking specifically about war, and some of the choices he made turned out to be very wrong indeed (Cold Harbor, for example). Both Grant's argument and Lewis' depend on the ability to recognise that one is on the wrong road and the timeliness in which one is able to make a course correction. It is the critical supposition from which all else follows.
Understanding that the path chosen is the wrong one and making a change are two very distinct abilities and not every individual or institution has these pair capacities. Some folks know where they need to go but not how to get there. Some do not know where they are going but are able to change course to avoid immediate obstacles. Good policy and sound judgement demand both capabilities.
A retrograde movement is progressive if and only if it enables forward movement toward a solution to whatever problems bar the path to progress. If you don't know what the problems truly are that cause the difficulty and don't have clarity on the desired outcome, all you can do is react to symptoms of deeper issues. That is not progress, but often it is the default.
Excellent point - if one realizes one is on the wrong path to a solution and returns back to the starting point but doesn't carry on to some attempt at a solution, then one is not being progressive any further. Failure has taught them to try nothing.
I wonder: Is a conservative one who tried a progressive path, found failure and then stopped trying? (I don't really think so, just throwing junk out there for the fun of it...)
Good to hear from you, Tim.
I wonder: Is a conservative one who tried a progressive path, found failure and then stopped trying? (I don't really think so, just throwing junk out there for the fun of it...)
A conservative, as they say, is a liberal who's been mugged. And a libertarian is a conservative who's been busted.
Good quote. Sometimes the best course of action is to stop self-destructive actions.
"in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive."
And I wonder, is the one who turns back the soonest simultaneously the most progressive AND the most conservative?
In the New Testament we talk about repentance and a turning or a shifting of mind. The Greek metanoia that is translated repentance points to that new frame of thinking or transformation of mind and action that sets the stage for conversion. It could mean turning and going in another direction, or it could mean being raised to a whole new level of consciousness.
I never quite understood why it is in the media (and by that I don't just mean news sources but in a larger cultural sense) changing ones mind after having experiences of new information was seen as such a character flaw. I think now it is perpetuated by the the nature of it being seen as hypocrasy and that makes for interesting news.
I love it, when from time to time a politician says, "I changed my mind. Here's why..."
Perhaps it's because so many people rarely change their minds about anything. They just take whatever their parents, church, culture, etc. teach them and build on that. Changing their minds or even questioning their assumptions seems completely foreign to them. Maybe
Thanks for the thoughts, y'all.
Post a Comment