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Citigroup eyes options including merger
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential...
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Fed's Bullard: U.S. spending slump to sap 2009 growth
EVANSVILLE, Indiana (Reuters) - St Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said on Thursday that financial market turmoil has collapsed U.S. consumer confidence and this would weigh on growth well...
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Oil falls over $1 on demand worries
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NY City securities workforce down to Sept 2005 level
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Democrats demand U.S. Big 3 offer survival plan
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S&P dives to lowest level since 1997
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks plunged yet again on Thursday, as a frantic flight from risk prompted by investors' deepening economic fears drove the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index...
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Marsal to lead team of over 600 at Lehman
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bryan Marsal, currently chief restructuring officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc , will take over as chief executive of the bankrupt investment bank after the close...
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Paulson defends handling of U.S. financial crisis
SIMI VALLEY, California (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Thursday defended his handling of the financial crisis but refused to say whether any further help will be offered to...
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Dell profit tops Street view, shares rise
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Dell Inc, the world's No. 2 PC maker, posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday as cost cuts offset lower revenue, sending its shares up about...
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Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac suspend some foreclosures
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two biggest U.S. home loan finance companies, on Thursday said they would suspend foreclosures of occupied homes until early 2009,...
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Written by Stephen Palmer
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Thursday, 31 July 2008 00:00 |
Reclaiming the Word "Progressive"
What condition is more wretched than to live…with nothing to call one’s own, receiving from someone else one’s sustenance, one’s power to act, one’s body, one’s very life?” -Etienne de la Boetie
Next to "democracy," "progressivism" is perhaps the most misused, misunderstood, and manipulative term in politics today. Reclaiming its usage and definition is essential in the struggle to turn our floundering ship of state around.
Contemporary progressivism gained traction in the late 19th Century and became widely popular in the early 20th Century, culminating in the 16th and 17th Amendments, the Federal Reserve Act and the New Deal. Despite having good intentions and doing much actual good (such as Universal Suffrage), the hallmark of progressivism is the age-old, predictable, and worn-out belief that the People need benevolent caretakers to ensure their security and well-being.
There is actually very little progressive about mainstream progressivism -- it's mostly a concerted revival and sly repackaging of misguided human tendencies as old as mankind, tendencies which have always led to tyranny. Underneath its sheep's clothing the wolfish concept really means meddlesome at best and authoritarian at worst.
Socrates, through his student Plato, provided the first manual of "progressive" (i.e. oppressive) statecraft in The Republic written in 360 BC. Despite scholarly suspicions that the work is merely satire, the imperious formulas detailed in The Republic have guided tyrants and demagogues alike for centuries.
Socrates outlines a theoretical society managed (i.e. forcefully controlled) by "philosopher-kings," wise rulers of the People, and their armed sidekicks, the guardians, who enforce their rules. It's theoretically ridiculous and practically horrific. And yet to a large extent the outdated philosophy provides the foundation of contemporary progressive thought.
The Dark Ages provide another vivid example of progressive ideology in practice -- arrogant rulers oppressing the People in the name of order and benevolence.
Of course, like any ideology, progressivism isn't all bad. In most cases it's motivated by a sincere and rightful desire to help people. Where it always goes wrong is in the misunderstanding of what government is and its proper role. Government is the institutionalization of force. By definition, behind every single government law or policy is a gun pointing at the head of all citizens saying, "You will obey this law, or else..." That's great when the law is to prevent murder, but it presents complications when the law entails stealing from one person to give to another, or favoring one business over another.
The only way to implement progressivism using the government is through "legalized plunder," an apt term coined by Frederic Bastiat. Rather than leading to "equality" and "justice" as well-intentioned progressives hope to achieve, such practices lead to increased inequality and injustice, political turmoil, societal mediocrity, and economic stagnation.
The government is one of the worst venues for helping people. As George Washington said, "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master."
It's time to call a spade a spade. Progressive ideology is more accurately termed as regressive and oppressive. Rather than being new, revolutionary, and leading to progress it's actually primitive, radical, and leads to societal decay.
It's only progressive if one believes that implementing outmoded central planning, the same centralization throughout history that the American Founders rejected, represents progress. We've already learned these lessons through 6,000 years of history and we shouldn't have to keep learning them through inane cycles of oppression. There's a reason why the United States became the strongest, most free, most prosperous nation of all time -- it's because we broke free (at least for a time) from the standard model of state planning that progressivism epitomizes.
It's time to reclaim the term "progressive." True progressivism is the novel and still-revolutionary idea that the proper role of government is to protect unalienable rights. True progressivism is the inspiring hope that mankind can progress through voluntary virtue, not forced and resentment-inducing wealth redistribution.
True progressivism is the firm belief that man, subject to God and responsible to and for the family, is his own sovereign.
True progressivism is the refreshing reality that the government must answer to the People, not the People to the government.
True progressivism is the self-evident principle that the government can provide equal rights, but never equal things.
True progressivism is the understanding that, as a form of government, democracy is a joke and that republicanism is far superior in terms of protecting and perpetuating justice and liberty for all.
Progressivism is being dedicated to philanthropy. Furthermore, it is the empowering knowledge that the best way to help people is never through the force of government, but rather through private, voluntary institutions such as religion, family, charitable organizations, academia, and business.
To reclaim our heritage we must reclaim the definitions of words, since words are the best reflection of who we are and how we think as a culture. As George Orwell wrote, "...if one gets rid of [bad linguistic] habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step towards political regeneration."
Contemporary progressivism is more oppressive than it is progressive. If we want to experience true progress in this nation, we will realign our values, laws, and government forms with one of the only progressive government forms the world has ever seen -- the original Constitution.
Join the new progressive movement -- do everything you can to help others and society at large through voluntary private and public virtue and strive to institute a government that does nothing but protect unalienable rights.
Recommended Reading:
Statesmen Versus Dictators by Stephen Palmer
Federalist Paper #1 by Alexander Hamilton
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Republic by Plato
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
The Quest For Cosmic Justice by Thomas Sowell |
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