"You cannot teach old dogs new tricks"
About this Quote
A Victorian reformer reaching for a proverb is rarely just being folksy; he is staking out the limits of politics. “You cannot teach old dogs new tricks” lets Joseph Chamberlain sound like he is merely observing human nature while quietly making a strategic claim about power: some people, institutions, even entire parties are too habituated to be remade, so energy should be spent elsewhere. The line flatters the speaker’s realism. It warns allies not to waste time negotiating with the “old dogs,” and it licenses impatience with gradualism.
Chamberlain’s career makes the subtext sharper. He moved from radical Liberalism toward Liberal Unionism and eventually aligned with Conservatives, championing municipal modernization in Birmingham and later pushing tariff reform and imperial cohesion. In that climate, persuasion wasn’t just moral; it was machinery - caucuses, patronage, newspapers, entrenched aristocratic norms. Calling opponents unteachable isn’t neutral description; it’s a way to reframe resistance as incapacity, not principle. If they can’t learn, you don’t owe them argument.
The proverb also performs a class-coded sleight of hand. “Old dogs” conjures stubbornness as something almost animal, a naturalized flaw, making structural conservatism feel like instinct rather than interest. That’s politically useful in an era of expanding suffrage and bureaucratic government: it turns conflicts over policy into conflicts over temperament, inviting the public to side with the “new tricks” as progress itself.
It works because it’s blunt, memorable, and slightly cruel - a small knife of contempt disguised as common sense.
Chamberlain’s career makes the subtext sharper. He moved from radical Liberalism toward Liberal Unionism and eventually aligned with Conservatives, championing municipal modernization in Birmingham and later pushing tariff reform and imperial cohesion. In that climate, persuasion wasn’t just moral; it was machinery - caucuses, patronage, newspapers, entrenched aristocratic norms. Calling opponents unteachable isn’t neutral description; it’s a way to reframe resistance as incapacity, not principle. If they can’t learn, you don’t owe them argument.
The proverb also performs a class-coded sleight of hand. “Old dogs” conjures stubbornness as something almost animal, a naturalized flaw, making structural conservatism feel like instinct rather than interest. That’s politically useful in an era of expanding suffrage and bureaucratic government: it turns conflicts over policy into conflicts over temperament, inviting the public to side with the “new tricks” as progress itself.
It works because it’s blunt, memorable, and slightly cruel - a small knife of contempt disguised as common sense.
Quote Details
| Topic | Aging |
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