A Note On Progress.

Photo by Christopher Sardegna on Unsplash

Everyone knows something is coming; whether it is massive political change or mass riots, everyone knows something is coming.

The problems revealed to us due to this pandemic aren’t necessarily new either, and they arise as a result of political negligence. That said, we all have our eyes on the future, the post-corona world, primarily, because we feel like we each have a chance to impact the world like none other.

What will this world look like? What won’t it look like? What will happen to ourselves?

These are all questions we face, and all questions many of us will seek solutions to.

In short, we will seek progress.

Progress has seen many forms and many interpretations over its years, not necessarily because the explicit definitions of progress have changed, but that we have observed different necessities and as a result, formed different ideologies that we thought to be a new way forward.

Communism and many socialist theories arose due to the social impacts of the industrial revolution; Libertarian/Anarchist philosophies, as a result of the presence of terrible authoritarian rulers and a desire for autonomy; fascism as a way to unite a nation founded on the observations that national unity and worker rights were necessary; Neoliberalism due to discontent with government action; Third Wayism to oppose Neoliberalism.

The evils, or benefits you believe each of these philosophies to have primarily depended on your views of their impacts on the world around us as well as your interpretation of social necessities.

My main point, however, lies in the fact that we are facing a time of massive disruption, perhaps somewhat similar, but all-together different in its reach.

We have —once again— come to a point, where we have to devise a new way forward, a plan, and perhaps— I hate to say it— a new ideology.

I have merely one plea you sociologist, you political scientist/theorist, you…whatever you are… let this not go down the bent of ideological purism as many before have.

Progress depends primarily on a finite set of problems and creating solutions, whose benefits far outway its costs. Moreso, I define true progress, to enhance the robustness of society. Progress(in a socio-economic context) as a result, isn’t defined by your views, it is defined by the collective set of challenges we face, and will face and our ability to provide solutions to these challenges.

In our pursuit of dealing with this pandemic, my only hope is that we stay laser-focused on the issues that face us. That we do not succumb to the failure of old ideologies: to pick principles( whose basis were completely justified by the context at the time) and generalize those principles to every problem we face.

This ideological bent hinders progress, as it seeks to redefine a problem to suit the view of the ideologue.

The problems we face may lean in the direction of those who may have already espoused a particular ideology, but the solutions, may not suit that of the aforementioned ideology.

It is as such a time that requires us to be open-minded, radically open-minded in our approach to tackling the issues we face. But more importantly, that we are fact-oriented in our pursuit of solving these issues. If we can do so, I have no doubt that we can become united in our pursuit of progress.