Progress: The Word Has Been Stolen And I Want It Back

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master—that's all."

Based on this passage in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass (1872), something called the Humpty Dumpty Principle was established whereby a word means what you intend it to mean. Through Humpty Dumpty, Carroll suggests that we ought to be the master of our words. Today I am wondering about a word that we may have failed to retain mastery of.

The Word Progressive Does Not Mean Left-of-Centre

The word ‘progressive’ comes up in a lot of political conversations. As we discuss matters of progress, some folks like to characterize a certain set of views as regressive; the antithesis of progress. I will contend that this name-calling is not helpful. We all want progress. Everyone that I know wants things tomorrow to be better than they are today. I don’t know of anyone who says I wish the world had more divorces, more crime, less freedom of speech, less generosity, more poverty, more pollution, less justice, less kindness, more racism, or more sexism. And yet many throw around the word progressive as if its meaning is obvious. And worse, those who contradict this ballooning twenty-first century ‘progressive’ orthodoxy are shunned as the regressive ones. We must push back!

I belonged to the Progressive Conservative party in Alberta until it united with the Wildrose Party to form the United Conservative Party last year. In a post to my blog on August 12 of 2016, in the midst of this unification process, I wrote that as the Progressive Conservative Party became more centrist it adopted and embraced the notion that the party is “Socially Progressive” and “Fiscally Conservative.” (see the entire post at: http://ucpthoughts.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-real-progressive-conservatives.html) This is not the notion of progress advanced by the party throughout its history. Historically we were the party that was both fiscally and socially progressive, and we were both fiscally and socially conservative. There is no contradiction in that statement. The party was committed to moving forward and becoming better on all fronts. Those engaged in academia and media who sometimes appear to own the English language have ascribed a meaning to the word progressive which we must never accept. The implication is that left is forward and right is backwards. This is balderdash! We must turn back the clock and reclaim the word progressive as one that describes conservative people every bit as well as it describes those on the centre and left of the political spectrum.

21st Century Understanding of Progress

While intended definitions vary, if we examine what progressive has come to mean, it seems to include a mixture of much of the following:

• Support for a woman’s right to choose an abortion
• Support for the right to end one’s own life
• Strident environmentalism
• Opposition to resource extraction
• Opposition to logging
• Legalization of marijuana
• Support for safe injection sites
• Opposition to corporal punishment
• Rehabilitation of criminals
• Opposition to gun ownership
• Relaxed divorce laws
• Sexual freedom
• Normalization of LGBTQ identities
• Indictment of systemic racism and sexism upon majority populations
• Hiring quotas
• Preeminence of rights over responsibilities
• Preeminence of choice over commitment
• Preeminence of individual over community
• Political correctness
• Norms about offensive language
• Open immigration
• Social programs
• Big government

I'm certain this list can be longer, that every item requires further explanation, and that some items will be contested by those who self-identity as social progressives. However, I think the gist of the list is clear. My point is not to suggest that these are evil notions of progress. On the contrary they are entirely valid. My contention is that there are other equally legitimate notions of progress which are routinely discredited in public discourse. Too often, people who hold to a 21st century version of progress reserve the right to call people regressive dinosaurs, or worse, when a different understanding of how to make the world a better place is expressed.

Assessing our Progress

When considering how to make the world a better place, it is a worthwhile exercise to consider how we are doing. In what ways is the world a better place than it was 50 or 60 years ago? In what ways is it worse? In other words where have we progressed, and where have we regressed? Are we willing to take a penetrating look in the collective mirror and assess our successes and failures? Are we willing to look at the past and seek to reclaim any goodness that has been lost?

It is not difficult to list ways in which the world has become a better place over the last five or six decades. In general people today are more affluent, better fed, better housed, better educated, more comfortable, enjoy more luxury, have more leisure time, have a greater life expectancy, have better health care, and have more freedom and opportunity to travel. Much of our improved lot is attributable to the proliferation in technology over the last 50 years. Beyond that, in Canada today, even though terrorism is a real threat, the fear experienced today does not compare to the cold war when people were building bomb shelters and making provisions for surviving an atomic bomb. We cannot deny that in many ways we have made a great deal of progress.

But not everything has gotten better. In many ways our parents and grandparents lived in a kinder, gentler, and simpler time.

Consider crime. In the area where I live, people 50 years ago did not lock their doors. Indeed some people did not even have locks. Today, rural crime is rampant. Locks and security equipment are abundant. Trust and trustworthiness both appear to be on the decline. What is a progressive person to do about crime?

Consider some of the environmental consequences of our affluence. Electronic waste, excessive packaging, planned obsolescence, changing fashion, automotive components, etc. are all reflections of our consumerism.  Perhaps those who desire progress spend too much time protesting governments and corporations, and not enough time advocating for a simpler way of life.

Consider families. In the 1950s it was uncommon for a marriage to end in divorce. Today about half of all marriages do not last. Subsequently, the number of children raised by a single parent is on the increase. Most will acknowledge that the disintegration of families has, in the majority of cases, not been good for Canada’s children. Commitment to our families appears to be on the decline. A truly progressive person will be devoted to a restoration of Canadian families, and a reduction in brokenness in the lives of our children.

Consider psychological well-being. Suicide and depression rates are on the rise. Drug use continues to be a burden. Cyberbullying is a growing problem. Economic and job related stress do not appear to be diminishing. More than ever young people struggle with identity issues.  How did we get here?

21st Century Progressive Orthodoxy

Consider freedom of speech. Much of what we call progress owes its very existence to the freedom of expression and the freedom of assembly. These freedoms allowed Martin Luther King Jr. to effectively work for progress in the face of rampant racism in the 1960s. Yet it is precisely these same freedoms which are threatened today. (In my July 20 post I make the argument that discourse in Canada is broken. You can read it here: http://rob4yellowhead.blogspot.com/2018/07/lets-talk.html). Universities were once the home of freedom of speech. People attended out of a desire to learn how to think. Professors were awarded tenure in order to ensure that they would always be able to express themselves freely. Today, professors are subject to discipline for offending someone or straying from a normative set of politically correct views. Progress demands a restoration of the freedoms of expression and assembly.

All of this is simply to call into question the success of those who call themselves social progressives. Are people now better off or worse? Are people today more righteous than the folks who lived in the 50s, 60s, and 70s?  Are we as trustworthy and trusting? Can we learn something from our forefathers and foremothers about how to be good neighbours and friends? What role does the culture shaping of media, education, and politics play in the formation of the people we have become? How can we progress?

I opened this post with a reference to 21st century progressive orthodoxy. It's a term I made up.  The list of beliefs expressed earlier are legitimate views to be respected and discussed. It seems to me that a passionate religiosity about many of these views has been established where they become creeds of this progressive orthodoxy. Merriam-Webster describes orthodoxy as a belief or a way of thinking that is accepted as true or correct. There is nothing wrong with embracing this orthodoxy.

However, a line is crossed when 21st century progressives, like our Prime Minister, contend that this battle has already been fought.  We won, and we are not talking about that anymore. This sort of finality forbids us to look back and determine if we really did make things better. If we are honest, we will all find mixed results when we give Canada a report card. We cannot go back to the 1960s, nor do we want to. But if we have conditioned ourselves to disregard history in our search for a better way forward, we have made a grievous mistake. If we disallow divergent voices into our forever changing national consensus building towards a better Canada, we fail to be democratic in this one important way.

Progress. The word has been usurped by well-meaning people who wish to make the world a better place. However, there are many more people who adhere to different sets of ideas to make life in Canada better. We want our word back.