The Myth of Progress

The idea of progress is a myth. The case is summed up in the leftists’ agenda to reconcile the world to ideals of refinement and development via mandates and ultimatums. Still, there is the inherent tendency to make labor and diligence trivial in these scenarios because the ultimate goal for progressivism is to accelerate movements to a breaking point and then hit the re-start button in a continuous cycle until progress emerges pristine for the watching world.

When Caspian confronted such an idea in that brilliant “Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” the Governor eager to use slavery as a currency asks Caspian, “Have you no idea of progress, of development?” Caspian wisely retorted, “I have seen them both in an egg…and we call it going BAD in Narnia.” Caspian knew that models that opposed Narnia’s ethics could never move forward rightly if progress was the agenda.

Progress is a tricky thing since it evokes a sense of wonder and glory. “Look at this car!” “Look at my view!” “Look at how liberated people look!” But all of this is a façade, and in fact, progress is an epic myth. It breathes the air of forward-thinking, but it only takes humanity away from clear-thinking.

C.S. Lewis writes that it’s a cowardly thing when ordinary people shut their eyes to the facts, and those ushering the name of progress do not care about true truths, they only care about the endless fabrication of narratives. What they seek is to be the arbiters of right and wrong; to be the tree of life dispensing wisdom to the nations without an ultimate fact-giver.

This plays deeply into the illusion played out by leaders in our culture. They are selling us a vision of utter hopelessness in the name of progress. There is a reason leftists are referred to as “progressives.” They envision a world where racial reconciliation occurs through the lens of compulsory actions. “Love thy neighbor” becomes “Force thy neighbor to love.” Progressivism triumphs through the nature of platitudes: big ideas with the substance of a dinner of herbs.

And this is the unique phase of history we find ourselves in. The Christian does not subscribe to some yuppy ideals of progress. We embrace a full-orbed tradition rooted in the basic morals of hard work and reality-driven ethics.

“Progress” is endearing because it does not demand complex ideas, or nuanced debates, but the simple orchestration of ideals on a piece of paper. We could get rid of all college loans overnight, and we could pay all third-world debts, and we could let Annie sleep with her boyfriend to liberate her, or we could take up the mundane tasks of doing the next right thing in front of us without the expectation of rewards, but only the supreme approval of our God.

The only kind of movement forward that Christians make is the movement that says, “If the Lord is willing, we shall do this (Jam. 4:15).” Apart from that, any movement or progress, or development is doomed.