On Old-Fashioned Progress

A fashionable-and wrong-cliché holds that "liberals," i.e., the social and political Left, are inherent advocates of change, rejuvenation, and progress, whereas "conservatives," i.e., the broad spectrum of the Right, including principled republicans, Christians, minarchists, libertarians, and Objectivists, are characteristically old-fashioned, reactionary, and seek above all a maintenance of a prior status quo instead of innovation, creativity, and improvement. In fact, however, neither is the Left progressive, nor does the Right advocate stagnation. If anything, the prevalent adherence to "old-fashioned" notions among the Right is the surest source of substantive future progress.

This view seems paradoxical at first glance, but an examination of terms and of the facts of reality will suffice to verify it. Dictionary.com's definition of "progress," most applicable to the discussion at hand, is, "steady improvement, as of a society or civilization." A steady improvement suggests that a society should strive, in the future, to be more perfect than it presently is; it does not suggest that a society should scrap all existing cultural, political, and scientific knowledge in favor of a total "paradigm shift."

Indeed, the latter course of action is what the Left, in general, advocates. The Left views Western Culture-the same culture that brought us capitalism, individualism, objective science, representational art, masterfully harmonious music, technological advancement, and across-the-board improvement in standards of living-as oppressive, "Eurocentric," patriarchal, speciesist, and fundamentally politically incorrect. As a remedy, the Left suggests that Western Culture be altogether abandoned in favor of a hydra with many "diverse" heads, including "post-modernism," "internationalism," "multiculturalism," "environmentalism," "affirmative action," and, of course, the ubiquitous welfare state.