On the quarrel of the old and the new

History doesn’t always flow, it often wrestles. Progress isn't a straight line from old to new but a push and pull between conflicting forces: ideas clash, traditions are challenged. Progress often emerges from the creative friction of established knowledge and the spark of different ideas.

This tension fuels transformation. Sometimes it looks like a cultural dispute, such as the quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns during the European Renaissance. It wasn’t just two conflicting approaches to philosophy, art and culture, but how we understand society and progress itself.

Do we honour the wisdom of the past, or dismantle it to clear the way for something new?

The Ancients saw the past as a foundation for the future: something to emulate, an anchor for stability in uncertain times, and a compass to navigate through change.

The Moderns argued for breaking free from the chains of the past: progress, they argued, demands that we let go of the weight of tradition and embrace change in our paths forward.

Without questioning and pushing boundaries, we’d never imagine something radically different - we’d never learn to see the world in different ways, from different vantage points. Without wings, we stagnate.

But without roots, we drift and go astray.

Progress is often a conversation and a dance between what has been and what could be. Sometimes an argument, a crash, a struggle. The tension and clashes between them spark transformation and become the force that propels us forward.

No matter how much we pursue clean slates and new beginnings, let’s remember that novelty is not about starting over but weaving the old and the new into something richer - and anchoring ourselves in what came before while embracing the possibilities ahead.

This time is the same. This time is different.