Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland Quotes
When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.
2nd Viscount Falkland
Lucius Cary 1610?-1643, English Poet & Member of Parliament, A Speech Concerning Episcopacy, 1641
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This statement is very revealing in that it illustrates the attitude of the establishment of most developing nations. Traditional change is OK as long as it is not does transformational—ie as long as it does not make any meaningful changes. But modernization requires transformational change; without it there is no major reform and all institutions and power structures remain in their positions.
1st Baron Macaulay. See {620691} for a related idea.
Many conservatives of the 19th Century honestly believed that for a well-grounded man, it was impossible to make a radical moral or cultural change. Froude thought that it was but should be done very carefully and sparingly. See {636915}.
This is the ultimate extreme of conservatism which literally means to conserve what is. Salisbury argues that even if you truly believe that the status quo is bad, you should keep it as the risk of change and unexpected consequence is so great that it is not worth the risk. Interestingly, this is the same mode of thinking which created the command in the Koran for Muslims to live with a terrible Caliph or ruler (unless he is a blasphemer or heretic) rather than risk the instability of regime change. See {590195} and {593076} as examples.
Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland PC (c. 1610 – 20 September 1643) was an English author and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1642. He fought on the Royalist side in the English Civil War and was killed in action at the First Battle of Newbury.
