Friday, June 15, 2018

Disruption, Opportunity Part 2

In Part 1, I raised the question as to whether the Disruption of the American national and international social order occasioned by Trump, the Reactionary Right, and the Christian righteous be an opportunity for Progressives? Can this new dark age in reaction to cultural permissiveness, economic neoliberal globalism, and populist strong-man democracy actually be a prelude to a new enlightenment?

Such an enlightenment would be a new economy that overcomes the gross inequalities caused by the commodification of nature, money, workers, and thought. Such an enlightenment would be a renewed democracy that is inclusive and pluralist and guided by scientific thinking which is evidence based, peer reviewed, and open to new thinking and formulation.

You might say I am being too optimistic even asking the question. And even if I were right in advocating this new enlightenment overcoming the darkness of this Trumpian age, it would be too late. The earth's climate is already fundamentally changed. Refugees have been turned back with children separated. The "free"market is already owned by the wealthy class that makes all things of nature, including humans, products for sale. Democratic governance is already being replaced by a mass populism choosing authoritative leaders supported by the wealthy class. On the wane are free love, free work, free press, free speech and assembly, and free enjoyment of life by satisfying all basic needs.

Many would say that I have fallen into the progressive fallacy thinking that things will get better and better. I counter that they do not understand what it means to be a progressive. There is no progressive ideology or doctrine. I know of no progressive who believes that progress is inevitable.  Progressives believe, and it is less a belief than a chosen attitude, that we can do better.  We, like in "We the people," persons speaking and acting together.

I must admit I hear persons I know to be progressive sometimes using unfortunate language like "being on the side of history" or "following God's plan." That language comes from a time of classical science with inexorable laws and of deism when many imaged a Creator who started the universe off and allowed it to take its course. Philosophers sometime deify "History" with a path that we better get on.  But history has no sides; it is constituted by human choices. Theologians and their sacred writings sometimes deify "God" as a superman in the heavens who has a set plan or will that we had better follow. But progressive theologians teach there is no such god, no such absolute plan. Transcendence and spirituality is a matter of faith as an openness to innovation and a commitment to the future of humankind that can be achieved if humans decide together to make it so.

We can do better but it is not in history's or god's hands. Its in ours. Together. That's the progressive attitude.

To be a progressive is not a matter of being a liberal or a conservative, on the Right or on the Left, a Judeo-Christian or a Muslim, a Republican or a Democrat. My own fallible judgment based on my education, reading, inquiry, activity in the world, at this point in my time and place, is to be 1) socially and culturally liberal, or even permissive libertarian, 2) economically socialist believing that capitalism must be well regulated, and 3) politically conservative, wanting to conserve our earth and protect our democratic republican institutions in government, civil society, and international relations.

Right now I think the Democratic Party is the better vehicle representing my viewpoint and those of the people I most admire. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, I identify more with the Republican Party. More important to me, however, is the support and encouragement of civil society, non partisan civic service and action through our mediating institutions. And cutting across all our tribes, institutions, and parties is the choice of using the politics of hope over the politics of fear.

Fear divides "us" from "them" and produces resentment. Hope expresses faith in the future and our responsibility to change things for the better for our progeny. No matter your tribe, community, identity, or party, I consider you progressive if you practice the politics of hope.

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