What is your thinking response to this G.K. Chesterton quote?

Question

The fatal metaphor of progress, which means leaving things behind us, has utterly obscured the real idea of growth, which means leaving things inside us.

Please avoid glib knee jerk responses. Chew on it a while, I'll leave it open a few days. I'd greatly appreciate your slowly mulling it over.

Answer 1

Forgive my immediate response, but I'm an admirerer of Chesterton. If anyone could have talked me into Christianity, he's the guy.

I see this as a contrasting of two ideas - progress and growth. Progress is an unstoppable march, something inevitable. At least since the Enlightenment, Western people have viewed change as being always for the better and merely as being a function of time. As time moves forward, progress moves forward. Therefore, all change is for the best, as it's progress. And so, you hear talk of changing our social institutions (especially in the case of religion) on the basis of making it contemporary. People talk about how a religion should be "in the 21st century" or "in this modern era", rather than discussing it as something enduring. Something enduring can stand as a witness throughout the ages, for as things change, a moral centerpoint is necessary to keep things grounded.

There is no such center.

We abandon the past, cutting ourselves off from the very foundations of our present, and imagine that this moment is the only one that ever matters. And now this moment. And then this one. You get the drift.

Compare that then to how growth ought to be, which takes what came before it into account. Growth builds from one thing to the next, going in stages, and requiring something external to act as a touchstone, a reminder of what humanity ought to be and to inspire the present moment. It doesn't mean stagnation; it simply refers to growth according to principle - integrating personal history with tradition.

That's what I'd say off the top of my head.

Lazarus

Answer 2

properly, i does no longer say it quite is a call for the final public, it quite is why I argue it xD however, whether it have been, it does not make a distinction, there is not any longer something incorrect with LGBT people. there grew to become right into a woman on youtube that stated this subject rely in the previous, once I observed it I kinda theory for a 2d and questioned why people someway think of that if it grew to become right into a call it may directly be undesirable. And definite, if I had a set of garments that have been all purple i could be donning it :P

Answer 3

As others have expressed, progress in general, is unstoppable, but not all progress is positive.

We have become a throw-away society; literally and figuratively. We hunger for the next gadget.
Our definition of progress has become tech-centered as opposed to humanity-centered.

Answer 4

Unfortunately that quote has some truth to it in todays world.

What passes for "progress" today often means throwing out everything from the past that was good, merely because it's "old", all in the name of change.

Answer 5

Dear Jaicee,

It's very profound.

It's almost like non throwing the baby out with the bath-water. Growth does often happen inside-out and so there are times we may leave things behind- but still long for them with our heart.

Very profound...

Kindly,

Nickster

Answer 6

"The fatal metaphor of progress, which means leaving things behind us"

Sure, if you redefine 'progress' to mean what you want it to mean, this works.

Progress:
1.a movement toward a goal or to a further or higher stage: the progress of a student toward a degree.
2.developmental activity in science, technology, etc., esp. with reference to the commercial opportunities created thereby or to the promotion of the material well-being of the public through the goods, techniques, or facilities created.

You'll not find a reference to 'leaving behind' in there.

Answer 7

It is difficult to even imagine that a book can assist people to change their fates however } thousands of guys and women, people that they have benefitted in a huge

Answer 8

i think the metaphor is wrong because we r leaving thing or if we r first then how con we r second