The tendency of all that is
printed and much that is spoken to-day is to be, in the only true sense,
behind the times. It is because it is always in a hurry that it is always
too late. Give an ordinary man a day to write an article, and he will
remember the things he has really heard latest; and may even, in the last
glory of the sunset, begin to think of what he thinks himself. Give him an
hour to write it, and he will think of the nearest text-book on the topic,
and make the best mosaic he may out of classical quotations and old
authorities. Give him ten minutes to write it and he will run screaming
for refuge to the old nursery where he learnt his stalest proverbs, or the
old school where he learnt his stalest politics. The quicker goes the
journalist the slower go his thoughts. The result is the newspaper of our
time, which every day can be delivered earlier and earlier, and which,
every day, is less worth delivering at all.
-Eugenics and Other Evils (1922)
This is so true and even more so now.
ReplyDeleteYep. :-(
ReplyDelete