Changing Times
Have you ever watched Person A struggle to open a lock, passing through every emotional stage from mild impatience to blazing anger, then finally throwing away the key and picking up a large stone to smash the lock? At that moment, Person B arrives and says, “Try my key. That’s a new lock, you know. Your old key won’t fit.” Person A is by this time so overwrought that he cannot bring himself to do anything but stand back and watch Person B insert the key in the lock. It opens, of course, in an instant.
Person A is like all those people who do not care to keep pace with the fast-changing world of the present day. They find themselves in altered situations, but persist in applying outdated formulae to them and never fail to become bewildered and irate when their old keys refuse to budge the new locks. They then proceed to waste their time and energy in venting their anger on these changed sets of circumstances which are not obligingly going to change back just to please them. They even allow their anger to reach such a pitch of intensity that they are prepared to smash whatever it is that no longer responds to their old keys. It is unfortunate that there is seldom a “Person B” standing by who will produce just the right key at the right moment.
People normally have to find such keys for themselves. But then it is not everyone who can find them, for their acquisition requires such strenuous efforts as few are willing to undertake. And before embarking on such a course, first of all people have to recognize this as a prerequisite of modern living.
But what do we still see all around us? Rabble-rousers on platforms making speeches, demanding reservations and exclusive treatment, with mountains of printed matter everywhere to echo their words.
They continue to inveigh against social prejudice and discriminatory practices, resorting to public demonstrations to reinforce their viewpoint. But applying outworn tactics to present evils and then expecting that in consequence all the good things of life will automatically fall into their laps, is little better than struggling senselessly to open new locks with old keys. They should be devoting their energies to serious efforts at all levels to bring about social uplift, an improvement in creativity and the setting of examples in individual diligence.
