Hurray! The majority of my workload is finished for the year - actually, FOREVER ( as far as undergraduate study goes). I've been able to kick back for a few hours and revisit an author who I am growing more and more fond of. In his book Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton answers the challenge of a critic who stated, "I will begin to worry about my philosophy when Mr. Chesterton has given us his." Here are some snippets from his chapter "The Eternal Revolution."
Now here comes in the whole collapse and huge blunder of our age. We have mixed up two different things, two opposite things. Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to suit the vision. Progress does mean (just now) that we are always changing the vision...
As long as the vision of heaven is always changing, the vision of earth will be exactly the same. No ideal will remain long enough to be realized, or even partly realized. The modern young man will never change his environment; for he will always change his mind.
Here, I do not believe that Chesterton is speaking about any given individual circumstance but rather touches on what it means for humanity to progress as a whole. I feel that this is an accurate critique of the fickle nature of my generation. We want to cry out and demand "change and peace" like our hippie predisessors, but in reality, we don't have the diligence to see something through to the end. We'd rather wax philosophical and drink Lattes by the gallon, and we do. For the christian, as Chesterton was and I am, this is a good reminder to focus on Christ, and to retreat from a pop-culture, which offers band-aid solutions for wounds that are gaping and mortal.
