Reformer Fallacy, The

The fallacy that the best reformers are driven by a burning desire to reform.

In fact, the person who sees himself as a fearless reformer is more likely to be driven by a desire to destroy, to simplify, and to ignore the pleas of the people who know the subject and are affected by the changes. The true reformer, in contrast, is a person who starts from a position of detachment and from no particular desire for change; instead, he is alert to the needs of circumstance, and may be able to push reform through with greater insight, precision and energy—and with more support—than he would be able to bring if he came to the task with the baggage of a prior commitment.

The big reformist movements of the modern era have been turned into acts of destruction by the Reformer Fallacy. The successful reforms—for instance, those of the great reforming Archbishops of Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus (602-690) and Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556), and of Florence Nightingale (1820–1910)—have started from a period in which the person is far from clear about the way forward, and is alert to fresh thinking about it. Fortunately, they did not have to take part in television debates in advance to set out precisely what they were going to do.

Related entries:

Pharisee, Ideology, High Ground, Utopia, Reflection, Encounter.