Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 182 |
| AUTHOR: | Barbara Mary Ward (1914–81) |
| QUOTATION: | Where they [the cultures of Asia and the continent of Africa] resemble each other, however, is that in all cases, it is the Western impact which has stirred up the winds of change and set the processes of modernization in motion. Education brought not only the idea of equality but also another belief which we used to take for granted in the West—the idea of progress, the idea that science and technology can be used to better human conditions. In ancient society, men tended to believe themselves fortunate if tomorrow was not worse than today and anyway, there was little they could do about it. The idea, the revolutionary idea, that tomorrow might be better and that man can do something about it is entirely Western—and all around the world it inspires what Mr. Adlai Stevenson has called “the revolution of rising expectations.” If a man has lived in a tradition which tells him that nothing can be done about his human condition, to believe that progress is possible may well be the greatest revolution of all. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | See No. 1618 for Stevenson’s words. |
| SUBJECTS: | Change |