A fifth argument points to the virtue of hope. This is one of the three greatest things in the world, one of the three “theological virtues,” along with faith and love. How can you have hope if you don’t believe in progress? The two ideas seem almost identical.
But there are at least four differences. First, progress is faith in yourself, or in humanity, to pull itself up by its own bootstraps; hope is faith in God’s grace. Second, the idea of progress means that long-range improvement is guaranteed; but hope, like faith, is a leap, not a guarantee. Third, progress is a collective idea, but hope is an individual virtue. Fourth, progress means something this-worldly, but hope’s object is other-worldly. (Paradoxically, hope for heaven does have powerful consequences for this world too: throughout history, those who have contributed the most to the improvement of this world have always been those who had a lively hope for the next.)
What’s Wrong with Loving Progress, Man?
Progressivism is a form of snobbery, and has the same terrible moral effects as any other form of snobbery. In fact, it is snobbery masked, and therefore is even more harmful than open snobbery. It is a form of pride, the deadliest of the deadly sins.
If, as Chesterton said, “Tradition is the democracy of the dead,” then Progressivism is the elitism of the living -- and within that, of a certain educated, well-off subset that enjoys sneering at once at its ancestors and its neighbors. Progressivism stifles the voices of the past, and amplifies the sound of our own speech, the better to help us pretend we have heard all points of view, then do exactly as we wish.
Progressivism also cuts us off from what tradition gives us: a pile of precious intellectual and cultural gifts from our ancestors. And even when we receive the gifts and use them, we are not grateful for them, for Progressivism forbids us the virtue of humility, which is necessary for the acceptance of gifts; and from gratitude, without which there is simply no wisdom or happiness. There is no surer hallmark of holiness, happiness, and health, in individuals or societies, than gratitude, and no surer hallmark of their opposites than ingratitude.
Progressivism stems from logical fallacies and leads, by habit, to the disparagement of reason. The substitution of calendars for arguments not only proceeds from irrationality but also fosters it.
Worst of all, Progressivism clearly contradicts the very idea of a divine revelation. If there is such a revelation, Progressivism corrects it, corrects God Himself, and arrogates to itself the right to edit rather than deliver the divine mail, evaluating it by dating its postmark. Even religions that do not claim a direct divine revelation, like Confucianism, Taoism, or Buddhism, get their teachings from their past, from their founders. Progressivists make it up as they go along.
The Causes of Chronological Snobbery
It is one thing to point out the arguments people offer to defend Progressivism, and another to identify the reasons -- many of them irrational -- that they actually stumble into this superstition. The former are typically rationalizations for the latter. The first cause of widespread Progressivism is a society-wide attention-deficit disorder (ADD), boredom with the “same old thing,” and addiction to “change,” which comes from contempt for the past, not hope for the future -- as if progress was defined only by getting father from zero rather than closer to infinity.
Unthinking love of change for the sake of change is also easier. It is passive. It puts less mileage on the brain’s odometer than the active and critical demand to find out whether the change is for better or for worse. Simple “change” is one-dimensional and automatic. Embracing it means also conflating the easy and comforting idea of irresistible progress with the difficult virtue of hope, which requires a constant active effort of each one of us.
There is also a religious -- or rather, anti-religious -- reason why our culture promotes Progressivism. Let me lay it out in the form of a syllogism (a very old and traditional form of reasoning):
a) Since genuine progress necessarily implies a fixed, unchanging goal that does not change, and
b) that’s what religion claims to give us, therefore
c) a secular state fears that this connection, however indirect, will pollute politics and thrust us back into the period of religious wars, which was ended by the separation of church and state.
Does this sound exaggerated? Think about how often people who defend traditional values are accused of hearkening back to “the Middle Ages.” Ask yourself how long in any argument about the Catholic Church does it take a progressivist to mention the Inquisition? It’s worth timing this phenomenon on your watch.
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