May
28th
Sat
28th
Andrew Potter on progress
“Progress is a stuffy old word, employed primarily by squares and ironists. But perhaps it is time to rehabilitate the very idea of progress: not the blind conviction that things are getting better all the time, but the simple faith that even when humans encounter obstacles, we’ll figure things out, through the exercise of reason, ingenuity and goodwill.
Faith in progress is nothing more, and nothing less, than faith in humankind, and if there is one thing we ought to be nostalgic for, it is for a time when progress was something that self-described “progressives” actually believed in. For too long they’ve been wallowing in an inert philosophy that has done considerable damage to the search for social justice and spiritual comfort.”
“Progress is a stuffy old word, employed primarily by squares and ironists. But perhaps it is time to rehabilitate the very idea of progress: not the blind conviction that things are getting better all the time, but the simple faith that even when humans encounter obstacles, we’ll figure things out, through the exercise of reason, ingenuity and goodwill.
Faith in progress is nothing more, and nothing less, than faith in humankind, and if there is one thing we ought to be nostalgic for, it is for a time when progress was something that self-described “progressives” actually believed in. For too long they’ve been wallowing in an inert philosophy that has done considerable damage to the search for social justice and spiritual comfort.”
— Andrew Potter, Canadian philosopher, author, and magazine columnist, The Authenticity Hoax: How We Get Lost Finding Ourselves, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2010, p. 271.
