Coming out of the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution, “Progress” became the major philosophical movement in the 19th and 20th centuries. Charles Darwin and Karl Marx turned it into scientific and economic “facts,” and the Left gobbled it up hook, line, and sinker. It became their religion. According to Darwin and Marx, everything is evolving, changing, and moving onward; nothing is fixed, final, or absolute. Darwin wrote, “Man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is.” Everything is constantly “evolving” onward and upward. It’s the West’s modern “zeitgeist.”
But actually, “Progress” has become anti-science (ideology replacing true science, e.g., man-made climate change, transgenderism, Covid vaccines, etc.), it is anti-economic law (Marxism, socialism, DEI), and because of its naturalism and materialism, it is anti-religion and thus rejects any moral absolutes based upon an eternal God (e.g., same-sex marriage, transgenderism, abortion, licentiousness, etc.). Given its atheistic, materialistic naturalism, it has also become globalist and anti-freedom: totalitarian government (directed by the Left) is the highest authority in existence now, and the tool that can “progress” the world to the great earthly utopia envisioned by communism. Everything THEIR government does is “progressive.” That’s “Progress,” folks.
But let me ask some relevant, necessary questions: what IS “progress?” Who defines it and how do we recognize it when we see it? While some “progress” might be, and surely is, self-evident, are there any limitations on “progress”? And—very, very critically—are there any traditions that don’t need to be improved, that don’t need to “evolve,” that don’t need to be “progressed?” To the last question, modern Leftist “progressivism” MUST, based upon their acceptance of the Darwinian worldview, answer with a resounding “NO!” Everything is evolving, changing, adapting; nothing is fixed, final, or absolute. Their attack on the traditional nuclear family is a most obvious example of this, as is their utter loathing of the absolutes of Christianity. Thus, traditionalism, “conservatism,” historical wisdom are anathema to them.
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Another question: when and where—if ever—does this “progress” stop? Same-sex marriage is “progressive.” But what about pedophilia? Bigamy? Bestiality? Incest? Is mutilating children or having sex with children (or animals) “progressive?” If everything is “evolving,” how can these things truly be “wrong”? Democrats are taking “progress” to its logical conclusion, i.e., nothing is actually “wrong” (except traditional absolutes), everything is in a state of flux and evolution. And, if we can help mankind more quickly reach the golden age of property-less equality, then why would the murder of millions of tradition-burdened, property-craving peasants be unacceptable? They are all going to die someday anyway.
This last question involves Marxism’s “Golden Age.” Marx postulated that once mankind reaches the “golden, communist” utopia, government (which is only a temporary tool of the “rich” to “oppress” the poor) will become unnecessary and dissolve. Men will be “free” in a perfect, propertyless “equality.” Well, hmm. Will that “evolve,” too? Is the Marxist utopia the “final stage,” the “absolute?” Does “evolution” end there? Where does “evolution” go from that point?
I wonder what Xi Jinping thinks of the Marxist idea of the eventual abolition of government. I suspect, being a good Marxist, he might be all for it—as long as it doesn’t happen while he is still in power.
The biggest problem with “Progressivism” is historical fact. In the 20th century, it failed miserably. Except for some technological advances, and in the ability to construct new ways of killing people, there wasn’t much “progress” last century. It was the most murderous, barbaric 100 years in human history. Two world wars, hundreds of millions killed by Leftism—that was “progress”? And while Darwinian “evolution” requires millions of years to get wherever it’s going (they have no clue, it is, by definition, undirected), coming out of the “progress” of the 19th century, shouldn’t we have seen at least SOME “progress” in the 20th? What happened? Who put the brakes on “progress”?
We got Darwin and Marx in the 19th century. We now understand that “progress,” ever onward and upward, towards a “golden age” for humanity is what this existence is all about, not some God-ordained, failed human nature that needs to be “saved” by a superstitious religion. We believe in “science.”
The problem is, in the 20th century, the experiments with Darwin/Marxist progressive “science” were horrendous. The Soviet Union, built upon atheistic Marxism, with its worldwide empire, came crashing down in a glorious debacle, after decades of indescribable human suffering and misery. We got to see exactly what Darwinian/Marxist “progress” meant in reality. And it was ugly. It still is.
But did the “Progressives” learn anything from the failures of the 20th century? No, of course not. It’s their religion. They aren’t going to give it up. Facts, reality, history, true science mean nothing to them; as one evolutionary scientist wrote, they have an “a priori” commitment to materialism (atheism) that cannot allow a deity to get “a foot in the door.” Given the destruction “progress” gave us in the 20th century, perhaps we should open that door a little wider.
But they will NEVER do that, regardless of how many human lives must be sacrificed on the altar of their “progressive” religion.
There was certainly material and technological “progress” in the 20th century. We have many, many wonderful inventions that have made our lives longer and more comfortable. But that began with the Industrial Revolution (and even prior to it), long before Darwin and Marx showed up, and owes nothing to either one of those men’s philosophies. Indeed, the Industrial Revolution produced Darwin and Marx, not visa-versa. And again, that isn’t what the Left means by “progress” anyway. Indeed, now they are doing everything they can to retard and even destroy THAT kind of “progress.”
Why?
Because man, in his material, technological “progress,” is destroying the planet.
“Environmentalists” and “progressives” are at each other’s throats. Hilarious. More soon.
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