Modern progressives disavow it, but the original Progressives were devout Christians and the heirs to American Puritanism. It was Nietzsche who expounded on the nihilism bound to result when the values of the West, tied to Judeo-Christianity were severed from God.
Activist left progressives tend to be young and so have grown up on screens. This makes them at once ahistorical and transhumanist. That is, they have "become" their devices which "tell" them everything. Which also means they are beyond reason. Thus, their atheistic, puritanical morality is unassailable. It's quite disturbing.
Here's a question: is the quasi- religious and clearly utopian goal of a society free of oppression and alienation the most dangerous ideology of our time? I ask as the propulsive force of liberatory utopian thinking is seemingly unlimited.
The egalitarian steamroller has no brakes and no OFF switch, and there will never be a shortage of people, usually opportunists, charlatans, and some species of the disaffected, who want to climb onboard and drive it full-speed over their enemies.
The Soviets only stopped once they hit social and ecological disaster; the Khmer Rouge only stopped once the pile of corpses grew too high to conceal; the Jacobins only stopped after everyone who'd erected the guillotine had been fed to it.
There is just this potent vestigial belief in human societies, most likely rooted in the deep, dark midsts of our Paleolithic past, that Person A having more or being more than Person B is deeply unfair, is a violation of the social compact, and this usually sets up a triad: the Envied Other, the lesser person filled with envy and resentment, and then the sociopolitical entrepreneur who has the instincts to turn this supposed evidence of "oppression" into a shield and sword, into a way for them to gain followers and start a crusade for Justice, which only ever means "I want what (and who) you are, it rightfully belongs to me, and watch me take it."
Yes, "the propulsive force of liberatory utopian thinking is seemingly unlimited," absolutely yes. And this seems paradoxically even more intense in our modern liberal democracies, which promise a transcendence that no humans or their govt could ever deliver. Or maybe it's just that if humans have nothing to build, they will turn to destruction instead.
Brilliant, that just about stabs into the heart of this beast. Horkheimer uses fancy words to discuss man's cognitive dissonance yet the logical solution to this problem is to end mankind. That sure would solve a lot of man's problems, no doubt about it. If not for one tiny little imperfection...
To riff further on the point, the beautiful vision is ever unattainable and demands ever greater destruction of all that impedes the realization of it. Since you can't destroy what doesn't exist - the future - you must destroy what you can, the present (which was all created in the past).
There is an irony floating through this - the dichotomy of competitiveness/conflict versus cooperation (and conformity). The feminine is considered to be better characterized by the latter and masculine toxicity is to be found in the former. Yet, it is women who are far more status conscious than men and there is no greater zero sum game than place in the pecking order. How often are men manipulated and maneuvered into attaining higher status (at whatever cost to themselves) to please the woman in their life?
Brilliant! Your systematic exploration of three foundational falsehoods of left progressivism covered everything, and covered it so well!
Thus, just for completeness: a while back I ran into this classification of four socialisms (class socialism - like the Soviets, etc.; fascism as civic duty socialism; National Socialism - enough said; and intersectional socialism). With progressives propagating intersectional socialism, I worry about the current and - I am afraid to think - what future disasters it may bring to human flourishing.
While looking into it again a few days ago, I found this: "Intersectional Socialism: A Utopia for Radical Interdependence" (https://academic.oup.com/policy-press-scholarship-online/book/56501). The abstract in the link is worth reading - it is a deadly serious academic trash - and reflects a lot of what Lorenzo criticizes.
I think Kipling's poem summarizes what Lorenzo stated in a way that has been and will be true for ages:
The Gods of the Copybook Headings
1
As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
2
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
3
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
4
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
5
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
6
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."
7
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."
8
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew,
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four–
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
9
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
10
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
His book on self-deception is a mixed bag. Very good when he is being an evolutionary theorist, much less so when his personal politics shines through.
But his parental investment theory was a genuine breakthrough in our understanding of sexual selection.
Well ..here you are - Hitler protected France, Holland, Belgium, etc. So they were wrong?! and Britain and the US …?! Pretty idiotic.
To Ron and the other accidental fascists (who don’t realize what they are) I recommend “Anatomy of Fascism by prof. R.Paxton, or Al at least read his definition of fascism.
Well ..here you are - Hitler protected France, Holland, Belgium, etc. So they were wrong?! and Britain and the US …?! Pretty idiotic.
To Ron and the other accidental fascists (who don’t realize what they are) I recommend “Anatomy of Fascism by prof. R.Paxton, or Al at least read his definition of fascism.
“The first—even obvious—point to make is that left-progressivism never achieves what it says on the tin. Ever.”
I agree with a lot of this essay. But I think the left has achieved a lot of “progress” from their perspective even if they are headed for a (another) crack-up. E.g., they have achieved many feminist goals as well as ending the most egregious harms against blacks, gays, etc. If they stopped had just stopped there, they would appear mostly realistic.
Left-progressivism retrospectively appropriates for itself things achieved by folk who had little or nothing to do with it and them. To take obvious examples, William Wilberforce and Martin Luther King were motivated by a Christian humanitarianism.
There is a huge difference between “we want in” to the existing society and demanding social transformation.
Eloquent but misdirected as always. You are still barking up the bush of academia while the forest fire of fascism is advancing your way. E.g. how does one stop a Trump/fascist regime from setting the agenda, curriculum and staffing for education establishments and destroying universities’ autonomy when such regimes do not allow any autonomy, but of their own “essentials”? Trump/Republicans are already doing it to all other supposedly independent institutions as well - media (CBS, BBC), cultural institutions (Kenedy Center), authors/journalists (M.Wolff, D.Lemon).
You are the sort of person who entirely fails to notice the Biden Administration seeking to impose censorship indirectly by pressuring social media companies, or its use of debanking against political opponents and as an instrument of industry policy, or the imposition of DEI commissars, or the enforced conformities in institution after institution…
You are the sort of person who wants to ignore the left-progressive building of institutional power across decades; the operation of AntiFa as an actual networked violent paramilitary, DEI training operating as updated struggle sessions; the fairly transparent attempt to open borders to manipulate electoral systems; the use of immigrants to break up working class communities, reducing/blocking/eliminating their capacity to exert power within their local communities; the decay of competence through selection-by-identity.
When Photo ID to vote is overwhelmingly popular, but Democrats overwhelmingly oppose it, using ridiculous arguments, arguments from people who wanted proof of vaccination to go about the ordinary business of life, clearly the intent is electoral manipulation.
Why do we have anti-ICE riots specifically in Minnesota? Clearly to distract from the massive welfare scandal which was also a Democrat funding scandal.
Trump, like all the national populists, is the symptom not the cause.
Yelling “Trump the fascist!” is the ultimate political distraction.
There is a small but promising revival of free thought and diversity of opinion occurring in many universities. The pressure generated by the Trump EOs and the Students for Fair Admissions vs Harvard case cracked open just enough space for the viewpoints of those truly oppressed by the woke hegemony to emerge into the daylight. It’s a very promising development and one can only hope it doesn’t get snuffed out by the usual suspects.
You have no clue what fascism was, except as used to curse anything you don't like. Fascism was just another flavor of socialism, civic socialism, however it was milder compared to your classical Marxist-Leninist murderous socialism. From which fascisms managed to protect most of the Western Europe starting from WWI and into 1980s. Thus, it was a necessary lesser evil, a competitor of whatever flavor of socialism you prefer, and hated by Marxists because of this. Our current 4 years of democracy under leadership of Pres. Trump has no resemblance to fascism. Lefty street riots on the other hand sure remind of socialist fervor.
The Kennedy Center doesn't create anything, it sanctifies, as if that is an important function (and one that was lacking prior to the creation of it).
What on earth are you going to do in 2 years time when the Trump administration is winding down and the competition to replace it is in full swing? Still be braying about the danger of fascism in the person of Trump (or the institution of the Republican party)?
Trump will pass soon, but the oligarchy / MAGA / GOP supporters will continue the takeover process and if they succeed, which I doubt at present, the democracy is over, as it happened in the countries above mentioned. The damage to America is significant already (just like in the Brexit case).
National Populists have not destroyed democracy anywhere. They are also not the ones who try to ban political Parties or lawfare their political opponents.
Don’t know about National Populists, I’m talking fascists, or authoritarians or dictators if you prefer, eg. Erdogan, Orban, Nazarbajev, Aliev, and the wannabe ones like Trump - “ I’d like my people to do the same “ ie. like in N.Korea where they stand at attention when Kim speaks.
There's nothing factual about your arguments. Hyperbolic yes; factual, no.
We've been on a slow-motion evolution to fascism - per Mussolini's blueprint (not Nazi Germany) - ever since our entry into WWII. As Nietzsche put it, "be careful who you choose as your enemy because that's who you become most like". We've just done so with the unique bit of both parties sharing in the process. Progressives absolutely love "everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state".
And we shouldn't underestimate how much of the progressive worldview is, essentially, a set of class prejudices and biases...
https://jmpolemic.substack.com/p/the-progressive-agenda-as-pure-class
Modern progressives disavow it, but the original Progressives were devout Christians and the heirs to American Puritanism. It was Nietzsche who expounded on the nihilism bound to result when the values of the West, tied to Judeo-Christianity were severed from God.
Activist left progressives tend to be young and so have grown up on screens. This makes them at once ahistorical and transhumanist. That is, they have "become" their devices which "tell" them everything. Which also means they are beyond reason. Thus, their atheistic, puritanical morality is unassailable. It's quite disturbing.
Here's a question: is the quasi- religious and clearly utopian goal of a society free of oppression and alienation the most dangerous ideology of our time? I ask as the propulsive force of liberatory utopian thinking is seemingly unlimited.
The egalitarian steamroller has no brakes and no OFF switch, and there will never be a shortage of people, usually opportunists, charlatans, and some species of the disaffected, who want to climb onboard and drive it full-speed over their enemies.
The Soviets only stopped once they hit social and ecological disaster; the Khmer Rouge only stopped once the pile of corpses grew too high to conceal; the Jacobins only stopped after everyone who'd erected the guillotine had been fed to it.
There is just this potent vestigial belief in human societies, most likely rooted in the deep, dark midsts of our Paleolithic past, that Person A having more or being more than Person B is deeply unfair, is a violation of the social compact, and this usually sets up a triad: the Envied Other, the lesser person filled with envy and resentment, and then the sociopolitical entrepreneur who has the instincts to turn this supposed evidence of "oppression" into a shield and sword, into a way for them to gain followers and start a crusade for Justice, which only ever means "I want what (and who) you are, it rightfully belongs to me, and watch me take it."
Yes, "the propulsive force of liberatory utopian thinking is seemingly unlimited," absolutely yes. And this seems paradoxically even more intense in our modern liberal democracies, which promise a transcendence that no humans or their govt could ever deliver. Or maybe it's just that if humans have nothing to build, they will turn to destruction instead.
Brilliant, that just about stabs into the heart of this beast. Horkheimer uses fancy words to discuss man's cognitive dissonance yet the logical solution to this problem is to end mankind. That sure would solve a lot of man's problems, no doubt about it. If not for one tiny little imperfection...
Thanks!
Isn't that just like a theorist to want to erase all that doesn't confirm his theory?
Lord save us from the professed saviors of humanity!
To riff further on the point, the beautiful vision is ever unattainable and demands ever greater destruction of all that impedes the realization of it. Since you can't destroy what doesn't exist - the future - you must destroy what you can, the present (which was all created in the past).
Put that Nietzsche away and pick up your Bible my friend.
I'm fairly familiar with that Book, even if I don't believe it has all of the answers.
I read em both!
I know, everyone around here has.
There is an irony floating through this - the dichotomy of competitiveness/conflict versus cooperation (and conformity). The feminine is considered to be better characterized by the latter and masculine toxicity is to be found in the former. Yet, it is women who are far more status conscious than men and there is no greater zero sum game than place in the pecking order. How often are men manipulated and maneuvered into attaining higher status (at whatever cost to themselves) to please the woman in their life?
Brilliant! Your systematic exploration of three foundational falsehoods of left progressivism covered everything, and covered it so well!
Thus, just for completeness: a while back I ran into this classification of four socialisms (class socialism - like the Soviets, etc.; fascism as civic duty socialism; National Socialism - enough said; and intersectional socialism). With progressives propagating intersectional socialism, I worry about the current and - I am afraid to think - what future disasters it may bring to human flourishing.
While looking into it again a few days ago, I found this: "Intersectional Socialism: A Utopia for Radical Interdependence" (https://academic.oup.com/policy-press-scholarship-online/book/56501). The abstract in the link is worth reading - it is a deadly serious academic trash - and reflects a lot of what Lorenzo criticizes.
I think Kipling's poem summarizes what Lorenzo stated in a way that has been and will be true for ages:
The Gods of the Copybook Headings
1
As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
2
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
3
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
4
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
5
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
6
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."
7
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."
8
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew,
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four–
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
9
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
10
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
Surprised by Trivers popping up in your bibliography.
I read some of his non academic "discourse" just this week in the release of certain emails...
His book on self-deception is a mixed bag. Very good when he is being an evolutionary theorist, much less so when his personal politics shines through.
But his parental investment theory was a genuine breakthrough in our understanding of sexual selection.
Well ..here you are - Hitler protected France, Holland, Belgium, etc. So they were wrong?! and Britain and the US …?! Pretty idiotic.
To Ron and the other accidental fascists (who don’t realize what they are) I recommend “Anatomy of Fascism by prof. R.Paxton, or Al at least read his definition of fascism.
Well ..here you are - Hitler protected France, Holland, Belgium, etc. So they were wrong?! and Britain and the US …?! Pretty idiotic.
To Ron and the other accidental fascists (who don’t realize what they are) I recommend “Anatomy of Fascism by prof. R.Paxton, or Al at least read his definition of fascism.
“The first—even obvious—point to make is that left-progressivism never achieves what it says on the tin. Ever.”
I agree with a lot of this essay. But I think the left has achieved a lot of “progress” from their perspective even if they are headed for a (another) crack-up. E.g., they have achieved many feminist goals as well as ending the most egregious harms against blacks, gays, etc. If they stopped had just stopped there, they would appear mostly realistic.
Left-progressivism retrospectively appropriates for itself things achieved by folk who had little or nothing to do with it and them. To take obvious examples, William Wilberforce and Martin Luther King were motivated by a Christian humanitarianism.
There is a huge difference between “we want in” to the existing society and demanding social transformation.
Realism isn't the goal.
Eloquent but misdirected as always. You are still barking up the bush of academia while the forest fire of fascism is advancing your way. E.g. how does one stop a Trump/fascist regime from setting the agenda, curriculum and staffing for education establishments and destroying universities’ autonomy when such regimes do not allow any autonomy, but of their own “essentials”? Trump/Republicans are already doing it to all other supposedly independent institutions as well - media (CBS, BBC), cultural institutions (Kenedy Center), authors/journalists (M.Wolff, D.Lemon).
You are the sort of person who entirely fails to notice the Biden Administration seeking to impose censorship indirectly by pressuring social media companies, or its use of debanking against political opponents and as an instrument of industry policy, or the imposition of DEI commissars, or the enforced conformities in institution after institution…
You are the sort of person who wants to ignore the left-progressive building of institutional power across decades; the operation of AntiFa as an actual networked violent paramilitary, DEI training operating as updated struggle sessions; the fairly transparent attempt to open borders to manipulate electoral systems; the use of immigrants to break up working class communities, reducing/blocking/eliminating their capacity to exert power within their local communities; the decay of competence through selection-by-identity.
When Photo ID to vote is overwhelmingly popular, but Democrats overwhelmingly oppose it, using ridiculous arguments, arguments from people who wanted proof of vaccination to go about the ordinary business of life, clearly the intent is electoral manipulation.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/polls-show-84-american-support-233216771.html
Why do we have anti-ICE riots specifically in Minnesota? Clearly to distract from the massive welfare scandal which was also a Democrat funding scandal.
Trump, like all the national populists, is the symptom not the cause.
Yelling “Trump the fascist!” is the ultimate political distraction.
Lorenzo, Surprisingly you’re descending into BS territory:
Antifa ?! Where’s it, what paramilitary, any action ?
DEI training sessions …OMG terrifying!
Open borders to manipulate elections ….where non citizens can’t vote ?!
Minnesota was invaded by Trumps brown shirts / ICE to distract from Dem scandal ?!
Are you ok?
There is a small but promising revival of free thought and diversity of opinion occurring in many universities. The pressure generated by the Trump EOs and the Students for Fair Admissions vs Harvard case cracked open just enough space for the viewpoints of those truly oppressed by the woke hegemony to emerge into the daylight. It’s a very promising development and one can only hope it doesn’t get snuffed out by the usual suspects.
You have no clue what fascism was, except as used to curse anything you don't like. Fascism was just another flavor of socialism, civic socialism, however it was milder compared to your classical Marxist-Leninist murderous socialism. From which fascisms managed to protect most of the Western Europe starting from WWI and into 1980s. Thus, it was a necessary lesser evil, a competitor of whatever flavor of socialism you prefer, and hated by Marxists because of this. Our current 4 years of democracy under leadership of Pres. Trump has no resemblance to fascism. Lefty street riots on the other hand sure remind of socialist fervor.
The Kennedy Center doesn't create anything, it sanctifies, as if that is an important function (and one that was lacking prior to the creation of it).
What on earth are you going to do in 2 years time when the Trump administration is winding down and the competition to replace it is in full swing? Still be braying about the danger of fascism in the person of Trump (or the institution of the Republican party)?
Don't take my word about Trump slipping into the past, take it from a Democrat who wants to replace him.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/13/newsom-to-world-leaders-donald-trump-is-temporary-00780460
Trump will pass soon, but the oligarchy / MAGA / GOP supporters will continue the takeover process and if they succeed, which I doubt at present, the democracy is over, as it happened in the countries above mentioned. The damage to America is significant already (just like in the Brexit case).
National Populists have not destroyed democracy anywhere. They are also not the ones who try to ban political Parties or lawfare their political opponents.
Don’t know about National Populists, I’m talking fascists, or authoritarians or dictators if you prefer, eg. Erdogan, Orban, Nazarbajev, Aliev, and the wannabe ones like Trump - “ I’d like my people to do the same “ ie. like in N.Korea where they stand at attention when Kim speaks.
I'm sure nothing will disabuse you of your fantasy. What an excellent example of the low information leftwing voter.
Nothing, but facts…
There's nothing factual about your arguments. Hyperbolic yes; factual, no.
We've been on a slow-motion evolution to fascism - per Mussolini's blueprint (not Nazi Germany) - ever since our entry into WWII. As Nietzsche put it, "be careful who you choose as your enemy because that's who you become most like". We've just done so with the unique bit of both parties sharing in the process. Progressives absolutely love "everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state".
You quote Mussolini right, eg. the states I mentioned - fact.
Facts: No POTUS in 100 years
had tried to illegally retain power
has lost so many cases of executive overreach
has unleashed fed violence on dem cities
has indicted so many political opponents on trumped up charges (and failed)
Not to mention Grump’s gratuitous foreign policy aggression
And staggering corruption.