whyroots

Progressive is a word that has come to define some of the greatest and worst rock bands (the Beatles and Kansas), a brand name for insurance (Progressive), and has largely been accepted as a synonym for "alternative" (as in, "My daughter attends a progressive school").

But embodied in the word is and always has been the idea of moving forward. If I take a step forward towards a door, I am one step close and I have progressed towards it. However the one-dimensional aspect of the word and its binary implications of backwards and forwards is misleading. It assumes there is a door in front of me and a straight line to progress towards it. (What's behind that crazy door anyway?) In reality, the idea of moving forward is much more complicated, The axis of history and development is multi-dimensional and defined by a variety of values giving different directions and orientation to what progress is and isn't.

Moving backwards, in fact, can be a form of progress. A person who rides a bike or the train or even a horse today could be considered a much more forward-thinking person than the one who drives a car every day, even though the automobile, freeway systems, and the suburbs were all once hailed as signs of progressive living. So keeping in mind that the definition of progressive is largely determinate on one's own personal or collective values. Now is the time for our generation, through conversation and debate, to define our problems and aspirations and progress accordingly.

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