It's Being Done

Sometimes when we are asked why we do something, we have no better answer to offer than the fact that “It’s being done.” But there ought to be a better reason for doing something than the mere fact that someone else is doing it. Before we do what others are doing, we should satisfy ourselves that they know what they’re doing—and furthermore, that it ought to be done. As Charles Churchill said: “To copy faults is want of sense.” We must remember that everything we do merely because someone else is doing it was once started by someone. And maybe the person who started it knew what he was doing, and maybe he made a mistake. Sometimes the blind lead the blind. Sometimes a crowd that doesn’t know where it is going follows another crowd that doesn’t know where it is going. A crowd may follow a “craze” and be much embarrassed about it. We could later all mention may such crazes that have become unexplainably popular but that look foolish when we look back. Some commonplace comment that someone once made can easily gain wide currency. We have all seen many slang phrases flare up and fizzle out. And a twist on the trail that someone once made can easily become the accepted course. Rocks that someone once went around can easily account for a winding road. Indeed, wasteful and winding roads and wasteful and inefficient ways are often perpetuated because someone did what someone else did, without being sure that he knew what he was doing. There are many ways in which things get started—false and useless, as well as worthwhile things—and it would be good for all of us individually and institutions alike, occasionally, to look closely and critically at some of the things we do merely because we have always done them or merely because someone else does them. There are many fine things to follow, many things that we must follow; but to follow faults or foolishness, to follow old errors, to follow men’s mistakes, or to follow wasteful ways is “want of sense.”