Most things don't change much.

[grampster]

"One of the sergeants near here came back from a recent leave with one of the most glorious shiners that ever darkened the human eye.
     'Run into a door?' I asked him.  
     'Gave a guy the wrong answer,' he replied simply.  'or, rather, the answer he didn't want.'
     I looked at his face, his teeth were all there and his jaw was still in one piece.  I looked at his hands' the knuckles showed the marks of service.
     'I was at a party,' he went on, 'when this fellow who lives next door to my folks wants to know 'how's the morale in the Army?'  'Excellent' I tell him; 'excellent'.  He looks me up and down sort of pitying-like and wants to know don't I read the magazine stories about how poor it is.  Well, I tell him, ' I spend all my time with the boys and I believe more what I see than what I read.'
     'He goes on from there making cracks at the Army and the country and the suckers we are for giving our time for what's not worth fighting for in the first place.  I listen politely for awhile, because even though I'm not in uniform I don't want to look rowdy.  I stand as much as I can and then I ask him to his feet.  It isn't long before his three brothers join the fight.  It was one of the brothers put his finger ring in my eye.'
     'Brother,' I told him, 'that ain't a black eye.  That's a badge.'
     'I lost the fight,' he said.
      'You won the argument, though,' I told him.
       I'd like to use the sergeant's name, but he made me promise not to.
       'I told the Old Man,' he said, 'that I got the shiner playing baseball.' "

From Chapter 26, "See Here, Private Hargrove", by Marion Hargrove, Copyright, 1942.

My point is, I guess, that the Progressives of the world seem to put forth the view that  mankind is somehow getting better and has risen above the fray and that all we need to do is join hands and drink a Coca Cola, sing a little song, or have a rock concert,  and everything will be just fine and we'll all just get along.  

Re-reading this old book that I had read as a lad indicated to me that things don't really change at all.  The clock moves ahead and we ride in cars rather than horses now.  We have flush toilets instead of holes in the ground.  But, really, mankind is no different than we have ever been.  There are good and bad, slow and smart, healthy and sick, rich and poor, but most of all, some who just can't seem to see the forest for the trees, and never will.

I am always struck, as a Christian, with the simple forthrightness of the Book of Jeremiah, the 17th chapter, verses 5-8 as it pertains to the ascendancy of Man.
Then Private Hargrove summed it up pretty well as I reflect on the mindset that seems to be prevalent today in the West as it regards the "brotherhood of man".

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

I hear you, Grampster.  

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.  Nothing new under the sun.

Ecc 1:9       That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun.

[mhdishere]

C.S. Lewis noted that if Abraham came back he would be completely baffled by cars and airplanes but would understand Hilter and Stalin perfectly.  Human nature doesn't change.

[griz]

It always amuses me to read predictions of folks decades ago who talked about how automobiles, swing music, television, (male) long hair, rock and roll, and video games were going to destroy our society. Yes they all had their effects, but what they (and admittedly me on occasion) were saying is they don't like the changes. The more things change the more they remain the same.

By the same token when someone advances the idea that violence could be ended if we outlaw particular weapons, they too are ignoring the nature of man. Not sure if that really fits in this thread but I'll leave it in anyway. :/

[grampster]

Griz, your final comment actually fits very well and makes the point I was putting out there.
  What is actually more scary about "Progressives" is that  they unwittingly exemplify and are actually supporting measures that would bring about horrors that are geometrically worse than the behaviors that they claim to abhor.  I say unwittingly because thoughtful contemplation seems to have no place in their world view; they are followers.  Trash the BoR and the Constitution falls.  Anarchy then reigns.  They can't see that because they trust the good will of Man.  The lesson of our experiment in freedom is that freedom only exists as a hope in the midst of chaos when we have the rule of Man.  The rule of Law brings stability.  
   My worry is that even if the foolish have always been around, maybe there are more of them now and we really are on our last legs.  Our nation is so much richer and indolent now, that I really wonder if the younger generation grasps how fragile our way of life is.
    The Eastern European Christians used to say that they prayed for the Christians in the West because their faith was easy and on the surface; cheap faith.  Eastern European Christians (any religious sect for that matter) was stronger because it was burnished by the fire of oppression.
    A lady actually wrote a piece in the local "Public Pulse" stating she was (By God) going to wear her white ribbon to help stamp out hunger in Africa.  I would have laughed out loud except her comment was so absurd that it deserved tears instead.  Imagine, if we all just put on a white ribbon, starvation would most certainly disappear.  I would like to call her on the phone and tell her that if she was so concerned, perhaps she ought to get her passport, sell all she has, and go to Africa and make a difference.  Many have done so!  I don't think she would.
  I realized a long time ago that I understood my limitations.  So in several small ways I make my dent in "the way things are"; proactively.  Other than today, I don't believe I've ever ranted about it as it doesn't do any good to talk about things.  Action is what gets things done.  Talk later.
   I am starting to babble so I think I'll go back to readin' the wisdom of others.

[Winston Smith]

Oh, now we're getting vaguely Leibneizian, with the world being always perfectly balanced, but changing, a perfect dyad.