"Change Is Good"

by S. M. Hutchens

I first heard this asinine preachment from the sort of person one would expect it from: a progressive member of the managerial class—just where C. S. Lewis put it in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader: "Have you no idea [said Gumpas in defense of the slave trade] of progress, of development?" "I have seen them both in an egg," said Caspian. "We call it 'Going Bad' in Narnia."

Scott Adams also gets it right in his Dilbert cartoons: managers typically justify their existence by making ill-considered changes that needlessly burden their employees. The Peter Principle operates somewhat nebulously but is nevertheless real. Supine adoption of the Change Doctrine is perhaps the least mistakable sign of its presence in many spheres of activity, including the churches. It is cause for rejoicing when one does not labor under its practitioners.

S. M. Hutchens is a Touchstone senior editor.

more on culture from the online archives

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19.4—May 2006

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