The Progressive Idea

The Progressive era started in 1913 with the establishment of a central bank in the US, and it probably came to an end in 2022. Peak pride, peak vaccine, peak climate hysteria, peak NATO, and an economy completely out of whack spelled the end of confidence in experts.

It started and ended with the idea that experts can handle things better than the free market. This idea was born during the Liberal era that started with the defeat of Napoleon in 1814. The progress made during the Liberal era was remarkable, and this was a mystery to many observers because the era was marked by a dramatic reduction in centralized planning. Gone was the all powerful aristocracy and clergy. Instead, we got merchants and industrialists, and they did a far better job at making life easier for people than any king or nobleman had ever achieved.

But how could something as chaotic as a free market be superior to an economy directed by experts? Many concluded that it wasn't in fact superior. All that had changed in 1814 was a move from incompetent experts to competent experts. The aristocracy had simply been replaced by a better aristocracy, namely the merchants and industrialists that had emerged.

In support of this idea, we had the observation that the most successful industrialists revealed themselves to be expert planners. They would streamline production. They would cut out middlemen. They would take charge of ever-larger chunks of the production process. This was proof that it wasn't in fact the free market that had caused the progress during the Liberal era. It was all due to better experts running things, and the ideal society should therefore be run and operated by such experts.

A society run by experts would run at an optimum. It would see more progress than any other form of organization, and an era in the spirit of this idea should therefore be called the progressive era. The term was not coined by sceptics like me but by the believers themselves who still proudly declare themselves as progressives.

As it turned out, people quickly discovered that there are two main strains of progressive thinking. One has the state apparatus and its bureaucracy as both the planner and executioner of policy. The other has the state as the planner, and privately held companies as the executioner. The first one is known as Socialism and the second one is popularly called Fascism. However, they are not opposite extremes as many will have it. They are two of a kind. Both hold unwavering faith in the superiority of experts over the chaos of a free market.

Streamlining and conformity is the name of the Progressive game. There shouldn't be a marketplace full of competition. The focus should be on what's best, and the best minds in the world should gather around what's best in order to make it even better. Since this idea came from academia, it spread quickly through theoretical sciences. Today, there can be no discussion outside of a very limited set of ideas within theoretical physics. There simply aren't any teaching positions to be had in higher education that fall outside accepted dogma.

Education is today completely set in Progressive thinking. No opposing views are allowed. The fundamentals cannot be discussed. The only area of discussion is what expert solution to choose. Stagnation rather than progress has been the end result of Progressive policies in education.

Health care has gone the same direction. We can choose between different vaccines, and we can choose between different types of pills, but there's no point in arguing for natural remedies. The experts are clear when it comes to what healthy living looks like, and it's not from nature. Man has conquered nature. The experts are now gods, and God is dead.

The ultimate goal of the Progressives is a single world wide governing body of experts that dictate all activities on the globe. This one world order was tested out for all to see during the virus scare, and it showed that the entire globe can in fact be directed by a handful of individuals. Decrees by experts were followed slavishly by every health institution in the world. However, the results were horrible. Every piece of advice turned out to be wrong.

It turns out that when we enable experts to reign freely, they quickly start thinking of themselves as infallible goods. Any idea that comes to their mind must be true, and from this idea springs pure madness. We get people thinking they can define themselves as anything they like. The mere thought of something makes it true. A man can be a woman. Wars can be won by unwavering belief. Money can be printed ad infinitum. Wind turbines can save the world from imagined threats.

The end station of Progressive policy making is pure madness, and that's what we've had for a few years now. The Progressives still think they can push their ideas further, but that looks increasingly doubtful. Now that most people have woken up to the mess created by the madmen in charge of the state bureaucracy, resistance to additional moves towards the Progressive utopia is on the increase.

We have entered a new era, much like the one we entered after 1814, and we can expect things to improve from this point forward. Now that the Progressive idea has been laid to rest for a few generations to come, we can look forward to an increasingly diverse world. The new era will be multipolar and full of opportunities for the creative and industrious.

A world of opportunities