The Inevitable Triumph of Progressive Thought
Manuel Valenzuela
12/08/04 "ICH" -- If the sands of time and the passing of the
seasons tell humanity anything, it is the inevitable push forward
that drives our species, the collective tidal wave surging us away
from the darkness of archaic thought and past conservative
ideology, and into realms of evolution and progress. For evolution
of society and thought is as inevitable as that of nature and
Earth, a construct of universal energy pushing life forward, not
backwards, towards betterment, not self-defeat. Progress is as
human as anything else, yet one more manifestation of an
ever-changing world, witnessed by those who have come before us,
recorded in the writings ingrained in the annals of history and
present for all to see in the remnants of archeological finds
scattered throughout the globe.
Human progress is as present as night and day, an omnipotent and
omnipresent force that cannot and has never been defeated. Many
interests have tried to halt this unstoppable momentum, only to
realize that the greatness of humanity pushes us forward as a
species. It may be contained for a small time, yet over and over
again progress continues its unrelenting drive onward, toward
greater liberalism and independence of thought, toward increased
humanism, education and world concern.
Just as Earth has continued to change and evolve during its long,
four-billion year old existence, never halting its progress, just
as flora and fauna evolve according to their environments and
circumstances, adjusting to survive and changing in order to
thrive, and just as humanity once left the African jungles and
savannas for the great Diaspora to all corners of the globe, giving
rise to eventual civilization, so then progressive thought
continues guiding us forward through centuries and decades, making
extinct mechanisms and thoughts no longer accepted, useful or
beneficial to the great majority of a societys citizens.
It is human progress, that catapulting boulder flying at the apex
of our skies, that has led America and much of the world to where
we are today, away from the corrosive grip Christianity, religion
and its minions once had over our individuality, our free-thought
and our independence, away from the reign of kings and queens, away
from the world of accepted slavery, feudalism and apartheid, and
away from the male paternalism and uneducated fantasy we were once
imprisoned by. It is progress, more than anything else, which has
guided us away from dark ages and unenlightened existence, away
from ingrained barbarism and primitiveness.
Progress enabled us to penetrate, after centuries of devastating
control by organized religion, the incredible possibilities of the
mind. As such, upon escaping the dungeons and the shackles placed
at our feet and arms for so many centuries, humanity took a great
leap forward, making a once sequestered western world, full of
controlled thought and persecuted progress, a launching pad of
talent, ability, creativity and opportunity. Progress was free once
more to continue guiding us along our journey in time, helping us
in the long and arduous path toward whatever destiny awaits
us.
As the Church began to crumble humanity began to rise, building
itself from the rubble of corrosive impediment a tower of
all-encompassing enlightenment. Humankinds indelible talents and
abilities, with our ceaseless quest for knowledge and perpetual
drive forward burst open in society a desire to understand a world
that had been denied us for too long. Finally, humanity was able,
now free of biblical bondage, to continue on its sojourn of
self-discovery, emancipated from primitive myth and fable, now
bound only by the limits of our own abilities. Without the
pervasive control gripping us to the confines of ignorance and
manipulative conditioning, humanitys potential became limitless,
without constraints or persecutions, and soon fictions gave way to
reality, lies disappeared in an avalanche of truth and humanity was
able to continue on its inevitable road to progress.
A withering flower, denied centuries of sunlight, water and
nutrients, suddenly began to blossom with the advent of
enlightenment. Human creativity and free-thought exploded like
never before, and the world began witnessing a profound change in
society. The printing press transformed knowledge, allowing the
many to learn what was once reserved to the few. Science began
questioning and indeed destroying established dogma that had for
years captured the minds of the masses. The rise of the individual,
with diverse thought and abilities, with astounding creativity now
free to unleash wonders never before seen, began interpreting the
way we saw ourselves and our environments.
The evolution of music, art, writing and technology made manifest a
world that had been denied the ever-curious and inquisitive human
mind. This change could be seen in philosophy, education and
science, in architecture, food and entertainment. It was
everywhere, rampant throughout humanity, rewriting society,
rethinking what was then known, uncovering the wonders of nature
and the origins of man, forever rocketing humanity into the zenith
of knowledge. The road to understanding who and what we are, the
beauty and balances of nature, the universal laws of existence and
ever-better ways to improve civilization had thus been
opened.
This was progress, free once again after centuries of imprisonment,
and while it was far from perfect, while still not universally
implemented, accepted or quickly spread onto all castes, while
fought ardently by enemies of change, it nonetheless became a
monumental step in the continued evolution of human
civilization.
Our present is today a result of this re-awakening, of a past that
resurrected itself due to the strength of human advancement that
could not be suppressed indefinitely, no matter how hard biblical
zealotry tried to arrest the inevitable move forward by a growing
human quest for understanding. The rape of knowledge, the hijacking
of education, the wish to return to the ways of the past is in the
long run as useless as a squared wheel. From the past comes the
present, the present does not become the past. We move forward, as
all things do, learning from years gone by, certainly, though
forever growing with the passage of time and as always recognizing
that society grows and evolves towards better things, it does not
regress back to backwardness.
With each new generation progress advances, leaving behind the ways
of those now gone as it embraces the ways of those now living. Like
an unstoppable freight train its momentum grows, absorbing new
ideas and beliefs, embracing different perspectives and thoughts,
evolving with time to better suit the needs and desires of a
societys citizens. It is evolution at its best, clear proof that
life is evolution, whether in human civilization or natural
selection. Change is a needed ingredient in any form of energy,
improving, mutating, surviving and thriving. Those entities that
fail to change, those that fail to evolve and progress get left
behind, becoming historical casualties lost to the sands of time.
The resting place of those who fail to progress is an all too
familiar junkyard gathering historical rust, a grave unforgiving to
both mans follies and natures rejects. Just ask the Catholic
Church, other archaic religions now vanished, civilizations lost,
ancient cities destroyed and the millions of species now
extinct.
By simply embracing change in society, whether in upgrading a home,
a car, a television or a computer, whether we heal using advances
in medicine or feast on the splendors of modern day food, whether
we adapt clothing fashions to those of the present or embrace new
forms of music, we are contributing to human societal evolution. In
deciding to live in todays world we are accepting the idea of
evolution, of a changing culture always shifting, always moving to
new endeavors and ideas. It is all around us, an all encompassing
reality, a manifestation of centuries built upon the foundations of
centuries, of small primitive villages giving way to mammoth
metropolises, of 100 story towers replacing pyramids, of cave
paintings giving way to the Internet, of tribes giving way to the
nation state, and, if we survive into the future, to the inevitable
coming together of the world entire.
It is progress, as inevitable as night and day, that we see in the
world of today, exported from the vast universe, itself a
constantly evolving behemoth, as well as from the natural world we
diminish more each passing day. It exists in our civilization, free
to move us forward in time with each arrival of a new generation
and the passing of another.
The Enemies of Progress
Ideologies of backwardness, stagnation and regression, of
maintaining the status quo, on the other hand, do not adjust to the
vibrant energies of modernity and advancement, and so fall behind,
becoming displaced and unwanted creations whose time to die has
arrived. It is for this reason that the enemies of progress choose
to fight, for in the extinction of their ideas their power
vanishes. In the death of their belief system the control they once
possessed evaporates, and impotent creatures they thus become,
trampled by changes they abhor and suffocating under the weight of
a world thriving without their manipulations.
The agents of backwardness and primitiveness, those that were once
able to rule and control through the unenlightenment of the masses,
are rendered inconsequential in a land whose progress has passed
over them. This is what they fear and this is why they fight,
oftentimes ruthlessly, to maintain their power through the
hindrance of progressive thought and evolutionary energy. Progress
destroys their foundations, it erodes the belief structure used to
control the masses, and, with each new burst of collective
knowledge learned by society, their grip on power evaporates. This
the enemies of change and progress cannot stand, and so wage
guerilla war to preserve the status quo and the backward-thinking,
primitive-laden zealotry that has worked to preserve both their way
of life and control over so many people.
Those whose interests lie in sabotaging progress will never stop in
their quest to subvert the evolution of human thought or the
progressive inevitability of humanity. For centuries they have
persecuted, banished, castigated, ridiculed, imprisoned,
exterminated, excommunicated, disappeared, murdered and ruined
those agents of change and advancement. It is those who have
everything to lose and nothing to gain from progress that fight
strongest to destroy it. And so, with threats to their power and
control, under siege from an ever-losing battle, the enemies of
change become desperate, capable of human wickedness in order to
regain all they have lost. Yet these remnants of false prophets,
fictitious beliefs, robber barons, exploiters, oppressors,
capitalists, criminals and murderers are waging a losing albeit
ferocious assault on progressive thought in America.
We of progressive inclinations must not allow these charlatans to
gain the upper hand. They refuse to see progress for what it is,
instead choosing to regress back to what they once were. America is
today vastly different than two decades ago. It is an entirely
different world than the America of the Founding Fathers, just as
it will be a completely different, impossible to fathom nation 200
year from now. Todays America is diverse, like no nation or empire
ever has been, full of color and vibrancy, culture and
universality, an amalgam of humanity. It is now open to fifty
percent of the population that for too long has been relegated to
the periphery of a male dominated world, their incredible talents
and abilities sequestered, their opportunity squashed.
Society and culture are different, as is governance, yet the
enemies of progress would have us live according to the precepts of
primitive thought and archaic times, when flatulence was a sign
from God, Earth was created in six days and man lived in peaceful
co-existence with dinosaurs. They would have us discard the wonders
of science for the fallacies of fables, having us believe in the
comical denial of ego rather than the obvious descent from
primates. They would like to return us to the Dark Ages, when to
possess free-thought was considered heresy and when searching for
knowledge led to burning at the stakes.
The enemies of progress fear homosexuality and their unions, as if
gay marriage will further erode an already devastated and dying
institution. They fear freedom of choice and of mind for women, as
if male paternalism is the best arbiter in deciding a womens
destiny. They fear knowledge and education, for wisdom is their
greatest enemy, a kryptonite that weakens their power and control
over the masses. They fear sexual revolution and enjoyment, as if
too much pleasure cannot be achieved in this world. Simply, they
fear the progress of humankind, of our minds and bodies, our
emotions and desires, our wants and needs. They fear people of
color, for to the enemies of progress blacks belong in plantations
or ghetto reservations. They fear immigrants who might one day soon
escape their bondage to the American taxpayer, thus becoming
members of WASP nation.
Everywhere one looks the enemies of progress can be seen,
homophobic, xenophobic, progressophobic and evolophobic, all
unenlightened and ignorant, trapped by the chains of hereditary
conditioning and the brainwashing of fundamentalist extremism.
Because of their tremendous shortcomings, they fear anything
different than them, anything that symbolizes change and progress.
The fear is obvious in their desperation, reeking out their pores.
They want nothing more than to return America to what it can never
be, to times that never existed.
For America was always a nation of change, of progress, of
evolution. What the enemies of progress fail to see is that America
has from its inception been a nation of evolution, its society and
culture progressing according to its environment and ever-changing
face. America has succeeded because of progressive thought, because
it always sought to move ahead, not regress back. The Founding
Fathers could never envisage what was to come, much like we cannot
see what the future holds, yet the greatness of this nation is that
progress has guided us in time, through dark days and cold nights,
leading its glowing candle of light to the vivacity of today, with
incredible diversity, talent and potential.
This, the enemies of progress fail to understand, and is why they
will fail, just as they always do, to rein in the unstoppable
freight train named progress.
An Inevitable Truth
Modern civilization, with all its faults, all its violence and
wars, all its inhumanity, its inequality and injustice, is not
perfect, but it is progressive and it is leading us, however
slowly, towards a better place, a better humanism. One has only to
look at the world around us. The world of yesterday no longer
exists, it no longer has power over us, it loses more ground every
day. We no longer live in caves or in dark ages; progressive
thought supercedes regressive ideology, we comprehend the world in
realities and truths, not fables and myths. Earth is no longer the
center of the universe; we now comprehend how we came to be and
slowly we are coming to the realization of who we are and what
damage we do onto ourselves and the planet.
Many people have surpassed the mechanisms of control, many more are
becoming aware, escaping the parameters of fictitious belief,
embracing the realism of nature and science, gaining wisdom from
freedoms once lost, evolving as individuals by discarding dogma
based on faith and the exploitative manipulations of those
profiting and empowering themselves through human unenlightenment.
Everything in society continues to evolve, always forward, letting
go of extinct traditions, becoming grander in knowledge, more
learned to science, far more empathetic to our fellow humans and
more aware of the world and its inhabitants around us. We still
have a long way to go, however, yet one thing will always remain:
progress, there to guide us forward, making society a better place
and bringing humanity closer together.
Today is a result of progress, of humanitys refusal to bestow onto
itself dark ages and medieval backwardness. For what is history but
progress, always advancing, rarely retreating, always seeking
answers according to our collective intelligence and quest for
knowledge. Human civilization is advancement, an evolution of
society that, though at times might find itself sequestered, never
fails to defeat the forces of regressive thought. Over and over
again, since the dawn of human existence, progress and backwardness
have fought in open hostility, battling for human civilization.
Every time, progress has been victorious. Indeed, we would not be
living present day society without a triumphant progress raising
its proud and colorful flag in victory. Its conquest over the
forces of regression and primitiveness is a constant over time, and
no matter how dire the world might look, no matter the power of
malevolent leadership, no matter how enormous the odds might
appear, progress always finds a way. Always. It is a given in life,
as constant as rain and sun, and it always reappears to guide human
existence past murky waters of times past and into new horizons,
using the energy and thoughts of young generations, as well as the
experience of those past and aged, to fuse together a more
progressive, freer, liberal way of living.
Despite tremendous obstacles placed by our own human frailty, our
own bad judgments and errors, our self-defeating actions, our
mammalian instincts and emotions, and by the enemies of change who
wish for nothing more than to impede the flow of gushing rivers of
human advancement with giant dams and barriers of backwardness,
progress has survived. In fact, it will outlast us, serving the
interests of the next species to dominate the planet, helping it
evolve towards betterment, helping the earth, sky and waters
regenerate from the devastation unleashed by mankind. We cannot
claim a monopoly on progress, for it existed before us, and will
certainly be present after us. All we can do is embrace it, for it
is leading us towards a better tomorrow.
In progress can we see history, and in history can we see progress.
It is inevitable, as real as the moon and stars, a stalwart energy
that, like all forms of evolution, leads to betterment. So do not
fear the enemies of change, delusional in belief they remain, their
cause is and has always been lost. Yet we must fight their
attempts, for progress needs assistance in defeating their
overzealous ignorance and growing power. We must not cave in, we
must not relent, we must wage battle, for in the end, history and
its truths are with us.