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You seem like as good a person to ask as any, and I've been wanting to for a long time: What is the pole star here? What is the point upon which principles should converge? I have my opinions as an outsider, but I'd love to know how the matter occurs to you.
Presumably there should be some consistency in the notion of 'forward'. What is the end goal which, if moved toward, tells you that the motion is progressive rather than lateral or regressive?
I wish I had a simple answer, but I think there isn't a pole star to follow other than the vague notions of making things "better" in some real sense by increasing prosperity and reducing suffering for each and every individual. One obvious problem there is that these things are highly idiosyncratic and difficult to measure, but I think e.g. getting rid of anti-sodomy laws or making gay marriage a thing helps to achieve that better by benefiting gay people, or having progressive taxes and welfare and socialized health care helps to achieve that better by benefiting poor people. I think stuff like "equality" or "freedom" are decent enough slogans for supporting bringing up people who were considered lesser than others or who were granted fewer rights than others, but only exist as end goals in some far flung future where we have so much prosperity that each individual is equally free to create a literal heaven in reality for themselves. In the here and now, I think the immediate goals include figuring out which of existing systems can be dismantled for easy gains (I think treating individuals on the basis of group identity is one such system that needs dismantling, which is where I diverge greatly from the modern progressive movement), or figuring out how to maintain economic growth so as both to uplift the poorest of us and to bring about that scifi post-scarcity future, or figuring out how better to advance knowledge so that we can build the tech needed to free us from our physical constraints (this, too, is where I disagree heavily with modern progressivism, as they seem all too happy to play-act at knowledge generation through a cargo cult of academics).
From a high level view, perhaps you can say that the goal is bootstrap our way into figuring out what the metaphorical pole star is, since we've been forced to contend with the reality that the pole stars that our civilization used to follow - and still follow to a great extent - were merely mirages that happened to be useful in certain contexts but also greatly harmful in certain others.
I've also said before that a progressive is someone who read Brave New World by Huxley and thought, "Hey, this seems like a pretty cool society to live in" like I did, and I think that's generally true, though that specific world probably isn't a realistic end state goal.
Well, thank you for the thoughtful reply. We disagree on many things but inasmuch as I wasn't asking to argue with you about it, I won't.
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The goal of progress is equality. True, absolute equality, not just de jure equality before the law but to stand alone before the state on the same terms as one stands alone before God.
That metaphor is not a coincidence: progressivism is thoroughly Protestant in its view of liberalism. Liberal conservatism tends to have a more Catholic view wherein intermediating institutions are a good way, perhaps the best way, to interface with the state.
To this end, progressivism tends to be quite hostile to intermediating institutions because the goal is to produce denuded and atomized individuals so that equality before the leviathan is the only option; the prayers of the saints cannot protect you so they shouldn't be allowed. And, due to the impossibility of this aim, perpetual revolution is the only way to maintain progress because asymptotic rest states are an inherently unstable equilibrium- if you aren't going forwards, you're going backwards. There's a quote in De Maistre, 'the counter revolution is not the revolution against but the opposite of the revolution' not running the revolution results in corporatism- the human norm- which undermines majestic equality before the leviathan.
See I'd take it farther and suggest that progressivism -- the flattening of all hierarchies -- is literally just Satanism dressed up in nice intentions. This is also why pride is such a key component. Pride being the sin of Satan, who decided that he could do just as well as his own God rather than submitting to God himself who dares say that actually some things are better and higher than others, and that rightness, beauty, goodness, happiness etc. are found embracing one's role and proper place.
In my church we teach that demons have no hierarchy because hierarchy is orderly and points to God. With this in mind the connections are obvious. And yes, the desire to replace God with the state is paramount, even when the state is transparently prone to possession by evil powers and principalities.
But I'm interested in the response of the person I asked.
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