keannu
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- Dec 27, 2010
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- South Korea
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By "linear change" in politics, does it mean "only one way change like in wealth or technology or something"? Does this paragraph denote that humans' effort for social change can't be perfect with some change achieved?
67)Social change can be generally ameliorative if it is properly managed, though it is not simply progressive: it does not move in only one direction. Burke’s idea of a just society is not an end state that is the ultimate goal of all political change. Rather, a just society provides space for thriving private lives and a thriving national life within the bounds of the constitution by allowing for some balance of order and freedom. Political life occurs within that space, and political change sustains and defends that space and therefore moves in various directions. Political change helps to slowly draw the constitution toward its perfection, but the change is far from linear and never simple. Precisely because of the generational character of human societies, political change cannot achieve a genuine perfection. Thus, societies are always contending with the most basic flaws of human nature. Those cannot be overcome, because we humans are always human, even as our social institutions improve with time as we learn from experience.
67)Social change can be generally ameliorative if it is properly managed, though it is not simply progressive: it does not move in only one direction. Burke’s idea of a just society is not an end state that is the ultimate goal of all political change. Rather, a just society provides space for thriving private lives and a thriving national life within the bounds of the constitution by allowing for some balance of order and freedom. Political life occurs within that space, and political change sustains and defends that space and therefore moves in various directions. Political change helps to slowly draw the constitution toward its perfection, but the change is far from linear and never simple. Precisely because of the generational character of human societies, political change cannot achieve a genuine perfection. Thus, societies are always contending with the most basic flaws of human nature. Those cannot be overcome, because we humans are always human, even as our social institutions improve with time as we learn from experience.