Progressive Thinking
This is not the kind of thinking that some liberals who identify as “progressives” would espouse. Just to be clear.
This is more the kind of thinking espoused by tech bros, industrialists, capitalists, and their admirers and enablers.
So, what is it?
I think it is a mentality in which certain people claim that things just keep getting better. On its face, that doesn’t sound so bad. Why do I want to be so pessimistic about it?
Like a lot of things, maybe it is really not what it seems.
The people who make these claims that we keep making progress and that it makes things continue to get better often want to convince the masses that this is so. Why? As with many aspects of our contemporary societies, much is at stake for them. Usually much money. Sometimes power too.
They want to convince us that our lives are much better because of their inventions, even if their inventions cause our employers to expect and demand more productivity from us. Don’t forget to send those e-mails after hours. Or, even if their inventions cause more of us to suffer from depression and other mental illnesses. Even if their services cause the teen suicide rate to increase. Or their devices exploit our evolutionary psychology to keep us tapping on screens so they keep making money, it’s all better, right? Don’t forget to check your social media feeds. Even if their products or services cause environmental pollution or contamination to our bodies. I mean, we can have nonstick frying pans now! Isn’t that great! Seems so, until you realize that everything you cook with that pan contaminates your body, your children’s bodies. Not to mention the pollution from the manufacturing process. But, it is better, right? Much more convenient to clean up the pan than an old cast iron one. Just a small price for such incredible progress! So what if we can’t drink the water.
It is not just that certain people want to keep us thinking that things are getting better. Progress is not just the goal. It becomes a justification. Once it crosses into justification territory, everything becomes subservient to it or a minor side problem that is no big deal. Like the PFAS chemicals in that non-stick frying pan. But then decades later we may learn that those chemicals disrupt our endocrine system and can cause all sorts of problems from obesity to infertility to certain kinds of cancer.
But let’s keep our eyes on the prize. All progress has a cost, we are told. The question is, who pays that cost? And, who profits from the progress? Or, can we ask, who is the beneficiary of the progress? Are the benefits shared equally? Or, are they hoarded by the wealthy and powerful people who keep convincing us that things keep getting better and will keep getting better?
For a long time in this country, and still to some extent today, some people have argued that inequality is just an inevitable cost of progress. Again, progress for whom? Sure, Amazon may mistreat and underpay its employees while destroying all competing businesses, but now we can get same day delivery! See, everything is getting better!
This mindset can seep into other aspects of our society. For how long were Black people in this country told that things will get better? That they had to be patient. Or, remember the “It Gets Better” videos on YouTube? The ones where people told LGBTQ youth that things will get better. Maybe things do get better, and maybe they have gotten better. But, sometimes this kind of thinking seems like a way of placating people. Just assure people things will get better to keep them from having to protest or plead to be treated like full human beings. Seriously, things will get better. Trust them. Whoever says that. No need for further action.
As such, progressive thinking can be the impetus for doing nothing. Because things just keep getting better. We just need to trust the innovators, the corporations, the disrupters. We don’t need to do anything ourselves, like pass any new laws or regulations, or boycott products and services that may offer some convenience but with a hidden cost — often to society or the environment. We don’t need to worry about climate change. The private sector will fix it, because everything keeps getting better.
I don’t know. Maybe this kind of thinking is just a dead end.