Change--Yes We Can!

Apologies to our legions of adoring fans for not giving you more of what you want--the golden medium aevum, philosophy, theology, and Latin!--and instead wasting precious electrons on politics and the Renaissance. But I read this bit today and in light of the political spirit of the age it seemed so appropriate that I had to share:

To my mind, in public affairs there is no course so bad, provided it is old and stable, that it is not better than change and commotion. Our morals are extremely corrupt, and lean with a remarkable inclination toward the worse; of our laws and customs, many are barbarous and monstrous; however, because of the difficulty of improving our condition and the danger of everything crumbling to bits, if I could put a spoke in our wheel and stop it at this point, I would do it with all my heart . . . The worst thing I find in our state is instability, and the fact that our laws cannot, any more than our clothes, take any settled form. It is very easy to accuse a government of imperfection, for all mortal things are full of it. It is very easy to engender in a people contempt for their ancient observances; never did a man undertake that without succeeding. But as for establishing a better state in place of the one they have ruined, many of those who have attempted it have achieved nothing for their plans.

--Michel de Montaigne, "Of Presumption"