Reimagining What Progressive Means: Five Core Ideas
Only a relentlessly positive vision can save us
Let’s face it: in recent years, progressive politics has lost its way. Much of the ‘left’ has been affected by the mainstreaming of postmodern critical theory in one way or another, with its relentlessly negativity and authoritarian tendencies making a clear mark on the left. On the other hand, backlash against wokeness, and the lack of a positive progressive alternative, has allowed an equally negative and equally authoritarian ‘populist right’ to rise up. In many ways, the postmodern left and the populist right are mirror images of each other: both relentlessly negative, divisive, skeptical of individual freedom, and ultimately destructive. It is clear that both forms of destructive politics are driven by negativity, and only positive thinking can combat them both. In short, we need a more positive alternative. This is why I think it’s important to reimagine what a positive, progressive politics could look like.
1. Less Theory, More Practical Progress
Ever since the 1960s, the far-left has been trying to inject their political theories into mainstream progressive politics, with mixed success. Although the evidence thus far is that those theories have not been helpful for practical progress in the real world, it has not only kept on happening, but even accelerated in the 2010s, with the mainstreaming of the postmodern critical theory worldview. The result is division, polarization and backlash. The reason why I have been very critical of wokeness is because this theory-driven activism is holding us back from focusing on, and achieving, practical progress. It is clear that what we need is less theory, and more practical progress, based on objective observations of the real world, and truly rational thinking.
2. The Power of Positive Thinking
Not only has the far-left’s philosophical theories been unhelpful for real world progressive politics, it has also brought an overall feeling of oppression, defeat, hopelessness and melancholy. This is rooted in both the far-left’s ‘oppressor vs oppressed’ philosophical worldview, as well as their very real historical defeats throughout the past century (brought about by their unsound theory and hence their unsound approach to politics). The Western far-left reeks of more than a century of defeatism and escapism, and we need to reject all that decisively. We need to embrace the power of positive thinking instead. Rather than being a blackpilled doomer, we should adopt a ‘glass half full’ attitude. Rather than adopting the paranoid attitude inherent to postmodern critical theory, we should perhaps revisit the positive attitude associated with consensus theory. We can only start to improve society in practical ways if we can appreciate where things already work well in the first place. Otherwise, there can only be a program of endlessly critiquing, dismantling and destroying everything, which ultimately leaves us with nothing. Finally we need to adopt a can-do attitude when it comes to fixing the ills of society. There’s nothing we can’t do, if we all act in good faith, and try our best. The answer might not be found just yet, but we will get there someday.
3. Truly Revive the Marketplace of Ideas
Nobody is perfect, and no one individual alone has all the answers to our problems, or the perfect vision for the future. This is why we need a marketplace of ideas, where all can engage in good faith debate and discussion. The marketplace of ideas is also where we should ideally be able to finally transcend age-old prejudices, including both the prejudice the reactionaries just can’t seem to get over, and the unsound theories the far-left just won’t drop. To revive a healthy marketplace of ideas we need to get rid of tribalism, echo chambers, audience capture, moral outrage and conspiracy-orientated thinking. We need to call these things out whenever we see them.
4. Cherish and Insist on Freedom
The marketplace of ideas fundamentally requires individual freedom to function. People need to have not only free speech, but freedom of conscience and freedom of action (as long as other individuals are not directly harmed) to demonstrate and prove that their arguments are sound (or otherwise). Both the woke left and the populist right have been trying to shut down the marketplace of ideas by targeting various forms of individual freedom, including through cancel culture, de-platforming, identity-based discrimination (against ‘privileged’ identities on the left and against LGBT individuals on the right for example), unreasonable calls to boycott companies, book bans, illiberal legislation and moral panic campaigns. These have all harmed the healthy functioning of the marketplace of ideas, and it demonstrates how individual freedom is necessary for a functional marketplace of ideas. Therefore, we need to cherish individual liberty, and vehemently oppose all attempts to harm it, including but not limited to the aforementioned examples.
5. Reintegrate Conservative and Liberal Philosophy for a Positive Reformism
As I have repeatedly demonstrated in the past two years, genuine conservative philosophy is not the kind of reactionary stuff that ‘conservative’ political parties (like the Republicans or the British Conservatives) have been regrettably embracing. Rather, it is a rejection of radical change that is rooted in abstract ideas, and alien to a given nation’s traditions. It is therefore a correction to a progressive politics that has gone too radical, to reroute it towards a reformism rooted in practical reality, and as consistent with a given society’s traditions as possible. Looking at it from another angle, it is a call to appreciate our reality as it is (which is essentially the glass half-full view), and prioritize its practical improvement over philosophizing in the abstract about what could be instead (which is essentially the glass half-empty view). The combination of this kind of conservative philosophy, and liberalism’s long-standing belief that society and life can be greatly improved through rational thinking, leads us to a sustainable reformist progressivism, where change is gradually enacted with the view of improving people’s lives in a practical way, and respectful of the shared traditions of society as well. Again, the revival of consensus theory in sociology would go a long way to assist in bringing about this reformism.
Originally published at https://taraella.substack.com.
TaraElla is a singer-songwriter and author, who is the author of the Moral Libertarian Manifesto and the Moral Libertarian book series, which argue that liberalism is still the most moral and effective value system for the West.
She is also the author of The Trans Case Against Queer Theory and The TaraElla Story (her autobiography).
