Times Have Changed

Whenever anyone speaks of the social precautions which were formerly observed, one is likely to be accused of being Victorian⎯which is another way of saying that the idea is thought to be “stuffy” and old-fashioned. But when safeguarding the most precious things in life becomes old-fashioned, civilization will be on its way out, together with the finest things that the finest people of all ages have stood for. Notwithstanding this, there are many who are going to remind us that “times have changed,” who are going to remind us that women, old or young, go out to make their own way, just as men do, and that there is virtually no profession, or occupation, or activity closed to them⎯that there is virtually no place, or no kid of company, or no social situation in which, under present conditions, women, old and young, may not find themselves. All this is true. Times have changed. In our day women do much of the world’s work; women are people in their own right, and any one who forgets it may expect to be quickly reminded of it. But it would be surprising indeed if a movement that had brought with it so much good had not also brought with it some things which are not altogether good⎯and because some bad things have been ushered in with some good things doesn’t mean that we have to accept them both. We still have the right and the obligation to discriminate between the two and to accept what is good and to reject what isn’t⎯even if times have changed. Where modern emancipation has given women a desirable freedom, we may be grateful for it; and where evils and abuses have accompanied that freedom, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to take the abuses in order to have the freedom. Just because times have changed is no excuse for gullibly swallowing everything that men call “modern” whether it be good or bad. To accept a new thing which is good is progress; to accept a new thing which is bad is retrogression. Times may have changed, but good and evil have not⎯and neither has the obligation to discriminate between them.