'Looking forward' and 'Looking backward' mean?

Question

It is difficult to know how to determine whether one culture is better than another. When it comes to public opinion polls about whether cultural changes are for the better or the worse, looking forward would lead to one answer and looking backward would lead to a very different answer. Our children would be horrified if they were told they had to go back to the culture of their grandparents. Our parents would be horrified if they were told they had to participate in the culture of their grandchildren.

What does it mean of the bolded part? looking forward would lead to one answer and looking backward would lead to a very different answer.

My understanding is that looking at the future generation's culture is horrible to grandparents and looking at the past generation's culture is horrible,too to our children. But somehow i feel like i am out of focus.. Help:)

Answer 1

Actually, the bold part of the sentence means nothing on its own. It's just a clever-sounding introduction to the following sentence, which explains what the writer means to say -- children would not want to "look back" and adopt their grandparents' culture, and grandparents would not want to "look forward" and adopt their grandchildren's culture.

That's about it, really. I'm afraid not every English sentence you read is particularly meaningful.

Side note: Although the dictionary says they are the same, "horrible" is not precisely the same as "horrifying", particularly when used for exaggeration. The writer of your excerpt describes the situation as "horrifying", but most people would be, at worst, mildly uncomfortable adopting a new culture, not stricken with actual horror.

"Horrible" normally describes the situation itself, and is an exaggerated way to say "awful":

It's horrible what the students did to our commemorative statue. It took the cleaning crew a full day to get the paint off.

Meanwhile "horrifying" tends to apply to the reaction to to the incident, and is an exaggerated way to say "upsetting":

We were horrified at what the students did to our commemorative statue.