To be a then person means to cling to the past for its own sake, to apply lessons that are not relevant today, to engage in a mixture of nostalgia, envy, rage, and fear toward “modern youth", and to imagine that 21st century problems can be solved by 16th century moral principles or 18th century politics. These are false alternatives, for they are not exclusive alternatives. There is a better way than either, and that is to be an always person, transcending both the frantic cult of the new and the feeble cult of the old. Which means selecting from both what is valuable, and discarding what is useless or harmful?