8. THE RATIONALIZATION OF THE SPIRIT OF PROGRESS.
Genuine progress comes through a happy combination of the old with the new. A love for the old only, means ultra conservatism; whereas a love for the new only, means ultra radicalism; a love for both means rational liberalism.
That people love the old way may be attributed to two forces which will receive attention here.
(1) Race instinct.
It may be said that “life is a brief space between two eternities—a path between infinity and infinitude.” “Man is a pedestrian who perambulates along the way.” The eternities concern him not so much as the path whichstretches between them. In a former day, one of the striking characteristics of the western plain was the beaten path stretching out along the table-land like an elongated, dust colored serpent; and often following this path would be a herd of buffalo winding its way in single file around boulder and ant hill till shut from view by the distant horizon. Thus has man travelled along the beaten path, following the “foot prints of the ages.” Here and there and everywhere do we see signs of those who have gone on before; father, grandfather, great grandfather; yes, even to the toe marks of those primeval ancestors of ours who shambled along the way, nobody knows how many years ago. From the dark recesses of the cave, have our forbears thrown a lasso of blood about our necks, and it seems as if we must follow the old, old way. “Being acorns of the ancestral oak,” we grow similar oak tree tendencies, living over again the life of our progenitors. “There lies in every soul the history of the universe.”
(2) Imitation.
But there is another reason for this ultra conservative spirit and it is that nature’s chief mode of instruction is by means of imitation. To every living thing of wood or field nature seems to say, “Your parents are always right, do as they do for this is the best way to learn the lessons of life.” A man thinks, feels and wills his way through life in a certain manner largely because his father did likewise. Moreover, we not only imitate those who have gone on before, but we counterfeit each other; fashion is another name for world wide mimicry. Weimitate our friends and those whom we admire; we talk like them, we walk like them, we live like them.
It now appears that we are held to the path of the past by means of race instinct and the power of imitation, and we are thus prone to believe that the old way is good enough. It is evident that to get out of the beaten path is dangerous. The wild animal that deserts the habits of the race dies a premature death, and the man who possesses the temerity to struggle through the thicket of new things must, of necessity, shorten his span of life. To follow the “same old rut” is easiest for the teacher; to be loyal to the “grand old party” is safest for the politician. But to the contrary, if every man of every generation had followed the beaten path blindly—without deviation, the human race would now be a horde of simians. Because man has possessed the power of progressive thought, he has developed the spirit of radicalism and has thereby made himself supreme.
“The old way anyway—the old way right or wrong” has been the world’s biggest stumbling block. Every innovation must fight for its life. Every good thing has to be condemned in its day and generation. It is Huxley who suggests three stages for the course of a new idea: First, it is revolutionary; second, it will make little difference; third, I have always believed in it. On the other hand, the new way anyway; “we must have a change whether or no”; “we must have something different despite the cost,” have ever been the slogans of waste and destitution. The wars which have not resulted from the prejudice of ultra conservatism have been brought aboutthrough the thoughtlessness of ultra radicalism. The revolutionist, the freak and the anarchist, products of impulse and the spirit of discontent, spring from an unwise love of change.
The world needs conservatism and radicalism not so much as it needs rationalism. It needs men who can hold to the good of the old and adopt the best of the new; men who neither “rust out” nor “waste out”; but wear out. That rational progress may obtain, there must be a perfect dovetailing of the old with the new. Man must leave the beaten path not altogether, but at times. He needs to blaze out a new way not so much as he needs to straighten the bends, tunnel through the mountains, and fill in the swamps of the old way. A rational “liberalism” implies a willingness to follow the old path with a view to improving the imperfections thereof.