“To look upon the ruined castle or the Greek pillar, to then state, ‘Why has it become that way?’ and you should put blame on the word ‘change’. Progress is change. Progress suits a singular person’s vision. It is not improvement, this progress. It is merely the change to the world’s colors. A kaleidoscope that once held a well of infinite shades and hues, only to be grasped of a few by one person’s vision and shared with the environment.”
– Modern Romanticism
What improves of the world? Nothing. What changes of the world? Everything. One can witness and be understanding of the great many technological achievements built by great minds, though it cannot ever be said to be an improvement. We are always at square one, in a social realm, meant to be comprehensive of the fact that one change to our environments is destined to be altered or even replaced by someone else’s vision of something different.
One person’s vision is merely one change. A voice or an opinion is always a different one. We speak as one, only when we communicate as individuals, getting to know one another. Shared knowledge within a book is not like shared knowledge in terms of wisdom. We can document scientific research, though when we philosophize about something for a book, another person will interpret the words and it will become a lie. Truth is only measured when one listens to it, as deception is born from disagreement.
Upon a change, we have brought about one when we witnessed deception. And how are we accountable for the sacrifices made, through progress, when we replace the old world with a new one? When we exit the old and bring in the new, can we be held accountable for what we have broken to achieve what we have built?
The answer to such questions is that the progressive is not within their nature to hold accountability for change. Whether great change or moderate change, progress always slows when it must consider what it has brought down to next bring up.
If one of progress considers, even for a moment, what it has destroyed to raise what will be admired, there will be guilt. From pride of achievement to the shame of what was required to die to build something supposedly better, a progressive will be weighed by the guilt of the latter. He or she, the progressive, will find that through this guilt, they must apologize and hold accountability towards those who have suffered for their cause. If such accountability were to take place, progress would reach a dead-end. It might even reverse itself towards what the progressive will state as a “downfall of improvement”.
Just like the change of seasons, the environments alter themselves to different colors. These changes are noticeable whether in the leaves or the blankness of immaculate snow, or in the expressions upon people’s faces. Is the change of winter into spring an improvement? In the subjective sense, so-called improvement is only ever in the display of mood. It is a satisfaction, for the moment, before another change takes place and the mind also alters upon what it is feeling. As it is, change is temporary. It is fleeting. A mood or a feeling is temporary or fleeting. What of an improvement?
An improvement can only take place with the individual. An improvement is never external, though instead it is internal. Whenever we perceive a person to have changed, it is not the case. When we love a person, we have done so because we can. There was no prerequisite to love. We did so, because love epitomizes freedom. And when we say they have changed from when we once knew them, it is actually the case that they have placed layers of deception upon their truth. As was stated before, deception is to disagreement as truth must be listened to. We will disagree with the monster for their intolerant and abusive behaviors. Although, we cannot find it possible to disagree with what is within them, truly wanting to be let loose by a familiar sound or sight.
If we have change, we have lies. If we have improvement, we have truth.
Modern Romanticism 