And this interposition of rebellion and then of geographical and occupational distance between parents and children may account for the peculiar emotional intensity that our society attaches to innovation. We appear to hate whatever went before, very much as an adolescent hates parental rule, and to look on its obsolescence as a kind of vengeance. Thus we may explain industry’s obsessive emphasis on ‘this year’s model,’ or the preoccupation of the professional ‘educators’ with theoretical and methodological innovation. Similarly, in modern literature we have had for many years an emphasis on
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