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Ceci Tuera Cela: This Will Kill That
Life is nothing but a balancing scale.
In Victor Hugo’s novel Notre-Dame de Paris, archdeacon, or senior Christian cleric, Claude Frollo touches a print book and glances at the cathedral towers. “Ceci tuera cela,” he says. It translates to, “This will kill that.”
In his mind, the archdeacon was imagining how disruptive innovation would prove. The invention of the printing press meant that the flock would no longer rely on clerical proclamations to discover information that it would otherwise remain ignorant of.
But ceci tuera cela means much more.
The slogan doesn’t just apply to a new force that destroys an old one; it also applies to two hostile forces that can exist, but not coexist, in the same period. Nor does such destruction move in a single direction; it moves both ways. The pen is not the only force that kills the sword. The sword can kill the pen and spill its ink like blood all over too.
This slogan also applies to intangible, abstract concepts. Here are nine examples:
1. Shoshin And Hubris
Shoshin means “the beginner’s mind.” It refers to an attitude of openness, eagerness, and letting go of preconceptions while studying a subject.
