Putting the clock backward

One of the first things 'what's wrong with the world' that Chesterton notes is our fear of the past. Instead of looking at the past, moderns often opt to look to the future. Chesterton calls this a 'weakness' or even a 'cowardice of the age'. We do not only not look at the bad things of the past, we also do not look at the good things, the 'unbearable virtue of mankind', the 'huge ideals'. Chesterton insists that we should never dismiss ideas from the past because they are old:

If I am to discuss what is wrong, one of the first things that are wrong is this: the deep and silent modern assumption that past things have become impossible. There is one metaphor of which the moderns are very fond; they are always saying "You can't put the clock back." The simple and obvious answer is "You can." A clock, being a piece of human construction, can be restored by the human finger to any figure or hour. In the same way society, being a piece of human construction, can be restored upon any plan that has ever existed.

There is another proverb, "As you have made your bed, so you must lie on it"; which again is simply a lie. If I have made my bed uncomfortable, please God I will make it again. [-] I merely claim my choice of all the tools in the universe; and I shall not admit that any of them are blunted merely because they have been used.

 In the next section (V), Chesterton gives two examples of old systems that have been tried to a certain extent, but not to their limit. He argues that 'if a thing as been defeated', logic does not dictate that 'it has been disproved'. It simply did not get the time to function properly and show its worth. In this chapter I found Chesterton's famous quote:

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.

Of course we cannot deny that the Catholic Church has had some opportunity to show its worth. However, Chesterton states that the world, 'did not tire of the church's ideal, but of its reality'. If failed 'largely through the churchmen'.