Progress

It is often discouraging to be a progressive. Most human beings are resistant to change. With age, most human beings become even more resistant to change. Older people hold the money and power in most societies. 

Progressive agendas in the U.S. are now impeded by a media empire, owned by Rupert Murdoch, which has pandered to the lowest instincts of the least educated and most materialistic. This media empire, in collusion with the likes of the Koch brothers of Texas, has spawned the Tea Party. Progressives, when faced with this kind of Fascist onslaught, have historically compromised and retreated. Some see President Obama doing just this in the recent budgetary wars. 

So, what has been the method of true progress in the human condition? Revolution. Those in power entrench. Wealth dominates. The people living under unbearable conditions rise up. This pattern has repeated nauseatingly throughout human history.

As a humanist and a progressive, I see this old cycle continuing in the current political trends in the U.S.. Entrenched wealthy interests are pushing for more power through the Tea Party radicals. Romney and Gingrich chime in to give 'respectable' Republicans cover, while they secretly cheer on the 'no-government' screams of Tea Party fringe. 

Money has changed the face of democracy. It has become the democracy of those with money. The rest of us are expected to choose between candidates who are pre-selected for us by financiers of gigantic media campaigns.  It is a sport for show, played between those who are determined to remain wealthy at the expense of others by not paying taxes, by cutting wages and by decimating the labor forces with job exportation and technology.

Simply saying "Why can't we all get along?" is not the way to progressive change. Courting those who would deprive people of human rights or economic justice is not the way to progressive change. Progressive change requires loud and vocal protest against those who wish to bully with their money and influence. President Obama's wan attempts at shaming corporate-jet owners fell very short of the rhetoric needed to actually implement a progressive agenda. Perhaps that is part of why we are where we are. President Obama has perhaps too much invested in the status quo himself.

As a humanist and a progressive, I abhor the idea of bloody conflict over politics. However, I equally abhor the apathy that is more likely to get human beings to that point in the future. A comfortable middle class without a conscience is the enemy of human progress. Religion which preaches materialism or masochism to the poor is the enemy of progress. Media professionals who sell their journalistic standards for job security are enemies of progress. 

Maintaining my humanist practice and supporting those causes which promote progress in universal human rights and economic justice are ways in which I keep my progressive consciousness alive. Waking others out of their apathy is another way I contribute to that progressive consciousness. Convincing those who are comfortable that it is not OK to abandon those who are not is essential to any progressive movement. 

I have been consistently disappointed in those who claim to be progressives in national politics for the last twenty years. The elevation of Ronald Reagan to sainthood by those on the Right and the Left sickens. I lived as a progressive in the trenches of human services during the Reagan years. I saw the destruction of human services during that period. This was the beginning of the dismantling of the Great Society vision of the 1960s. This process of reversing progress for universal rights and justice always begins by targeting the poorest and most disenfranchised. Blaming the victims of injustice to avoid the cost of elevating their life condition is a time-honored method of reversing progressive political change.

I believe it is time for those who support progressive causes to put pressure on those in politics to deliver on their promises. There is an election cycle in 2012 which will determine the future of progressive causes for decades to come. Right now those prospects look rather grim. A Tea Party Congress will prevent any progressive change, even if Obama is elected for a second term. This battle can be waged through a political process, but eventually the people subjected to downsizing and unemployment will have their say one way or another. If the social security network is destroyed, as the Tea Party wishes, there will be one time-tested way for those people to react.