Sunday Thoughts from Several Weeks Ago
Apr 18, 2009 12:47 Filed in: Politics Subjects Progressivism
Any political policy, belief, or theory contains a vision of what the world should be like. That vision is seldom explicit, often unconscious, and sometimes secret, at least in its purest, most unembellished form.
Political dialogue, it it is to be productive, must address this vision, or else it misses the mark.
The ideal polity arises from the projections of our own shadow material onto both the world and the deity that created it (or the physical processes that made it, depending upon one’s belief). Most people do not know why they are attracted to a conservative, liberal or progressive position, because the attraction has its origin in their unconscious.
A conservative vision is easier to come by than a progressive vision, because it is based upon an appealing past. It draws much of its strength from our tendency to forget unpleasant experiences and remember only the pleasant. We are easily convinced that there existed an ideal era, a veritable Garden of Eden, of which evil people and forces have deprived us, and—if we can only defeat those evil forces—Eden will be restored. In our current era, the evil people and forces are represented as misguided do-gooders, socialists and redistributionists that have poisoned the well of pure capitalism and the free market.
At its heart, the conservative vision is profoundly elitist and anti-democratic. Societies governed by conservative principles are invariably plutocracies or timocracies. The few rule and take what they want; the many obey and try to live on the crumbs left over. The first task of the conservative thinker, then, is to conceal this ugly reality from his followers, a task made easier by the almost universal ignorance of history. If he is a decent person, he will have to explain it away to himself first, a task made somewhat easier by the financial support of the elites themselves.
A progressive vision arises from the idea of a possible future different from the past but better than the present. It must change, however, in the face of empirical evidence, or it will become another conservative vision. The progressive vision, therefore, is wedded to reality, which is continually in flux. The conservatives have Plato and the eternal forms. The progressives have Socrates with his questioning and Heraclitus with his river.
To a progressive, the past is teacher, not master. What worked in the past may or may not work today or in the future. Every significant advance of the human race was, by definition, unprecedented. Faulkner notwithstanding, the past is really past, and a society based upon the contrary assumption is sick. A society that believes in an imaginary past that is not yet past is insane.
The weakness of the progressive vision is that it requires imagination and a willingness to question what society accepts as eternal verities. Some “eternal” verities do persist throughout the ages, but many of them serve only to preserve the power and position of elites. Therefore, public progressivism requires political courage, a rare virtue.
Political dialogue, it it is to be productive, must address this vision, or else it misses the mark.
The ideal polity arises from the projections of our own shadow material onto both the world and the deity that created it (or the physical processes that made it, depending upon one’s belief). Most people do not know why they are attracted to a conservative, liberal or progressive position, because the attraction has its origin in their unconscious.
A conservative vision is easier to come by than a progressive vision, because it is based upon an appealing past. It draws much of its strength from our tendency to forget unpleasant experiences and remember only the pleasant. We are easily convinced that there existed an ideal era, a veritable Garden of Eden, of which evil people and forces have deprived us, and—if we can only defeat those evil forces—Eden will be restored. In our current era, the evil people and forces are represented as misguided do-gooders, socialists and redistributionists that have poisoned the well of pure capitalism and the free market.
At its heart, the conservative vision is profoundly elitist and anti-democratic. Societies governed by conservative principles are invariably plutocracies or timocracies. The few rule and take what they want; the many obey and try to live on the crumbs left over. The first task of the conservative thinker, then, is to conceal this ugly reality from his followers, a task made easier by the almost universal ignorance of history. If he is a decent person, he will have to explain it away to himself first, a task made somewhat easier by the financial support of the elites themselves.
A progressive vision arises from the idea of a possible future different from the past but better than the present. It must change, however, in the face of empirical evidence, or it will become another conservative vision. The progressive vision, therefore, is wedded to reality, which is continually in flux. The conservatives have Plato and the eternal forms. The progressives have Socrates with his questioning and Heraclitus with his river.
To a progressive, the past is teacher, not master. What worked in the past may or may not work today or in the future. Every significant advance of the human race was, by definition, unprecedented. Faulkner notwithstanding, the past is really past, and a society based upon the contrary assumption is sick. A society that believes in an imaginary past that is not yet past is insane.
The weakness of the progressive vision is that it requires imagination and a willingness to question what society accepts as eternal verities. Some “eternal” verities do persist throughout the ages, but many of them serve only to preserve the power and position of elites. Therefore, public progressivism requires political courage, a rare virtue.
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