Two summer ago when I was at the Hertog Summer Program, I handed in a short essay. The piece was no more than a couple pages long and everyone in the class had to read what I’d written. In fact, at every class someone had to submit a short paper for everyone in class to read. That day didn’t go as planned. I handed in a paper denying that historical progress was real. One girl angrily responded: “What of women’s rights? “What of slavery?”
My opinion hasn’t changed. Progress implies an end, a telos, a good. People say “it is good abortion is legal” and “opposing that puts you on the wrong side of history.” But those words mean little. Unless every self-labelled progressive has a notion of what the “good” society is (and this is unlikely since, if you ask Nietzsche, the atheist has no “good”), then we’re just spouting mouthfuls of air.
You see, good things occur in history: slavery is abolished, women get the vote, hamburgers are invented, etc. But good things do not equal progress. What of the two World Wars, largely driven by “progressive” notions? What of the reality that living longer isn’t necessarily living better? Perhaps there are pitfalls on the climb upwards, but these are some big pitfalls.
In other words, the “progressive” either recognizes that a substantive good exists (a rare breed indeed) or he doesn’t. If the former, he has what Ricky Ricardo might have called “some splainin’ to do” because democracy hasn’t done well in the Middle East, globalism is oppressing people, and Hitler. If the latter, he’s full of hot air. At the end of the day, history is possible not necessary. To be necessary, something must be actualized. In other words, it can’t be possible. And we forget this. We see history as an onward and upward march, an exponential curve. But no sane human being can believe that. History is a series of possibilities, which we influence and which Providence guides.
On a final note, many of my fellows like to blame Hegel for this development. What we need to remember is that the world-spirit coming to know itself in time is not the same thing as what our contemporaries call “progress.” There’s the irony that substantive good requires some kind of faith, but, that’s a piece for another day. Either way, progress isn’t real.
