The Progressive Road to Serfdom

(Raychel Sanner/unsplash.com)

Commentary

First, a tip of the hat to the late Austrian Nobel Prize-winning economist Friedrich Hayek for his 1944 book “The Road to Serfdom” (pdf). The imagery of that title is clear and penetrating. Hayek was warning of generic tyranny, not a literal return to the old English system of serfdom.

There are many roads to tyranny, and American progressives are charging pell-mell in that direction. This article will trace the arc of progressivism from meliorism to perfectionism to utopianism to tyranny.

Meliorism

As I have written before, American progressivism has been infused from the start with the doctrine of meliorism. This belief system takes a worthy goal—the betterment of the human condition—and marries it with an inferior, inherently defective strategy for attaining the goal: government redistribution of wealth and economic planning.

Unarguably, American standards of living have improved immensely since the emergence of progressivism as a political ideology in the late 1800s. Indeed, the progress made over just a few generations has been breathtaking. In the 1900–1910 decade, the United States was what we call today “an undeveloped economy.” Life expectancy was less than 50 years; there were fewer than 200 miles of paved roads in the country; few doctors had gone to college; and the average worker earned less than $15 for a work week approaching 60 hours in duration. Today, the amenities accessible even to poor Americans are truly astounding by comparison.

What produced this explosion of wealth? Progressives like to believe that their policies drove this progress. They didn’t. If extensive government intervention into economic matters were the key to prosperity, then the communist states, wherein government intervention was maximized, would have emerged as the wealthiest societies, instead of the poorest. The real source of our country’s spectacular economic growth has been the private sector consisting of entrepreneurial, self-employed individuals and profit-seeking companies, both large and small. Advances in scientific knowledge and technology, competition-induced efficiencies, entrepreneurial vision, and inventiveness—these are the factors that launched us on our upward trajectory.

Year after year, it’s the profit-seeking businesses that deliver more and more value for each consumer dollar. By contrast, government involvement in the production and provision of economic goods often tends to raise prices, delivering less value per consumer dollar.

Over the decades, progressives, not understanding economics or the actual causes of our unprecedented affluence, ignorantly concluded that government intervention was driving the progress. Since so much economic progress had been achieved in so many areas, progressives figured that the next logical step was to use the government to solve all economic problems. Meliorism gave way to perfectionism.

Perfectionism

Perfectionism is a harsh, judgmental, even condemnatory ideology. Under its influence, progressives have let the good we’ve achieved become the enemy of the perfect that we haven’t yet achieved. Rather than appreciating the progress already made and being grateful for it while continuing to encourage economic progress, perfectionism has warped progressives’ perspectives so that they see our current affluence as a disgraceful systemic defect, immoral and shameful. That’s why progressive politicians are given to angry outbursts and apoplectic outrage. That’s why they frequently spew forth shrill condemnations of our entire system.

Paradoxically, the more progress our country makes, the more vehemently progressives criticize it for the sin of not being perfect. We’ve gotten to the point where we’re subjected to almost daily temper tantrums from progressive politicians who seem to think that our wonderful country is just one step from hell because (at least) half our population isn’t on board with their grandiose plans. If only they could chill out and heed the wisdom of noted popular philosopher Mick Jagger: “You can’t always get what you want—but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.” If they could just see that everyday life in America isn’t a constant crisis. There are problems, yes, but also so much for which to be grateful.

Utopianism

The desire to attain perfection breeds a utopian sentiment. The progressive ideology today holds that everything—yes, everything—must be fixed by the government. Uncle Sam must remove all risk. Thus, private ownership of guns must be curtailed and hopefully eliminated so that (theoretically) nobody gets shot; abortion must be readily available for any reason—even the “oops” situations when someone could have planned ahead with contraception but didn’t bother; fossil fuel consumption must be ended and carbon dioxide emissions drastically reduced so that humans can (supposedly) enjoy stable temperatures; people who don’t get vaccinated should be relegated to second-class status; and so on. In a utopian society, self-responsibility isn’t necessary, because the government (supposedly) will engineer an ideal environment in which unwelcome outcomes can’t happen.

As is inevitably the case, utopian visions lead to dystopian realities. Just look at the progressive goal of eliminating fossil fuels as part of their planned journey to transform the United States into a glorious future of intermittent (sorry, “renewable”) energy. By choking off current supplies of reliable energy, progressives have imposed high and hurtful energy prices on Americans. They’re inflicting pain on today’s Americans in the name of creating a better life for tomorrow’s Americans. That conjures up memories of the Soviet Union where the Communist Party rulers kept telling the present generation of people to bravely endure shortages and sufferings today so that their children or grandchildren could enjoy a workers’ paradise tomorrow. But tomorrow never arrives, dystopia never progresses to utopia, and economic progress stagnates.

Here’s another factor to consider: Utopians always encounter a formidable obstacle to their fantastic plans for a perfect society—namely, people. Yes, unfortunately for the utopians, not everybody shares their values and their vision of the world. Some people even presume to want to pursue happiness and their own goals, rather than to be reduced to a cog in a machine or a lowly pawn on the utopians’ chessboard. Progressives despise individuals who think independently because they represent an existential threat to the utopian, perfectionist dreams so dear to progressives.

What’s to be done about these people? Progressives start by adopting a dehumanized view of their opponents. After all, if progressives know the way to justice, prosperity, happiness, freedom from risk, et cetera, then people who oppose the progressive agenda must be evil. If people are evil, they aren’t worthy of respect. They don’t deserve their rights. They shouldn’t be allowed to teach at universities or even give guest lectures on college campuses. No student should ever have to listen to their heretical ideas, but should be able to retreat to safe spaces where such individuals can’t reach them. Non-progressives are to be canceled, erased, obliterated, and, in the most extreme cases, “liquidated” (to use a verb favored by communists). The political system must be rigged (scrap the filibuster, pack the Supreme Court, and so on) to squash the resistance posed by these inferior beings. Ultimately, non-progressives must be hated, calling to mind Lenin’s dictum, “Hatred is the basis of communism.”

Tyranny

Ultimately, to achieve their utopian goals, progressives need to have the power to smash their opponents. Dissent from the utopian agenda can’t be tolerated. People can’t be left free to pursue individual happiness. Progressives must obtain total political control over the people. The only way for progressives to achieve utopia is to first achieve tyranny.

In listening to some of the more rabid progressive (socialist) politicians, it’s plain that they won’t be content with anything less than dictatorial powers. We, the people, must choose between a progressive-designed tyranny and life in a free, pluralistic society prospering from a market-based economy.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.