11.29.2003
Life has been a little on the edge here of late. I've still be reading. Picked up Mary Doria Russell's Children of God and found this wonderful gem:
“Change can be good,” Suukmel said then, walking once more. “Many Jana’ata still believe as we all did in ages past: that change is dangerous and wrong. They believe everything my lord Kitheri did was error – that he was wicked to change a way of life bequeathed from one generation to the next without degradation or fallacy. Can you understand this? Have you such perfection on your (Earth), Dani?”
Danny fought a smile. “Oh, yes. I myself am a member of a ‘church’ that is believed by many to be an infallible repository of timeless truth.”
“My lord Kitheri and I considered this problem very carefully,” Suukmel told him. “It was our belief that any institution considering itself the guardian of truth will value constancy, for change by definition introduces error. Such institutions always have powerful mechanisms to shore up invariance and defend against change.”
“Appeal to tradition,” he said, “and to authority. And to divinity.”
“Yes, all those,” she said serenely. “Nevertheless, change can be desirable or necessary, or both at once! How then does a wise prince introduce change when the generations have enshrined a practice or a prohibition that now harms or cripples?”
(p. 221)
“Change can be good,” Suukmel said then, walking once more. “Many Jana’ata still believe as we all did in ages past: that change is dangerous and wrong. They believe everything my lord Kitheri did was error – that he was wicked to change a way of life bequeathed from one generation to the next without degradation or fallacy. Can you understand this? Have you such perfection on your (Earth), Dani?”
Danny fought a smile. “Oh, yes. I myself am a member of a ‘church’ that is believed by many to be an infallible repository of timeless truth.”
“My lord Kitheri and I considered this problem very carefully,” Suukmel told him. “It was our belief that any institution considering itself the guardian of truth will value constancy, for change by definition introduces error. Such institutions always have powerful mechanisms to shore up invariance and defend against change.”
“Appeal to tradition,” he said, “and to authority. And to divinity.”
“Yes, all those,” she said serenely. “Nevertheless, change can be desirable or necessary, or both at once! How then does a wise prince introduce change when the generations have enshrined a practice or a prohibition that now harms or cripples?”
(p. 221)
