Progressivism is...elitism
- Thread starter William Bonney
- Start date
I've never seen two people interpret anything exactly the same... which is as it should be.
Which makes having a discussion about such things with a lying weasel like natty so fruitless. His penchant for shifting the meaning of words within his own arguments to suit his own ends is legendary.
The Progressives were an economically secure, highly articulate group which reflected the rise of new middle class elements, particularly professionals. And, like the Constitutional Founders, they viewed themselves as the educated elite alone capable of giving effective government and dispensing justice.' Substantively, progressivism was allegedly dedicated to the "conviction that the functions of government . . . [were] too restricted and that they must be increased and extended to relieve social and economic distress."
Alan Stone
Alan Stone
The Progressives mindset:
It is in this context that we can integrate the findings concerning the elitism of some of the major progressive figures. Mowry is worth quoting extensively here: . . . [Blenign change scarcely issued from the masses. Rather it was only accomplished through the instrumentality of a few great and good men. Woodrow Wilson believed that efficient government could come only from an "educated elite", William Kent thought that progress never came from the bottom, and Roosevelt often spoke of government as the process of "giving justice from above". . . . In 1912 Walter Lippmann wrote that since men could do anything but govern themselves, they were constantly looking for some "benevolent guardian." To the progressive politician that guardian, of course, was patterned after his image of himself.
Alan Stone
It is in this context that we can integrate the findings concerning the elitism of some of the major progressive figures. Mowry is worth quoting extensively here: . . . [Blenign change scarcely issued from the masses. Rather it was only accomplished through the instrumentality of a few great and good men. Woodrow Wilson believed that efficient government could come only from an "educated elite", William Kent thought that progress never came from the bottom, and Roosevelt often spoke of government as the process of "giving justice from above". . . . In 1912 Walter Lippmann wrote that since men could do anything but govern themselves, they were constantly looking for some "benevolent guardian." To the progressive politician that guardian, of course, was patterned after his image of himself.
Alan Stone
Progressivism's first cornerstone, then, was the construction of new institutions and political devices that would reduce public participation in political decision-making.
Alan Stone
Alan Stone
Ouch
Rule by expert received its first major impetus before the Progressive Era and is also connected with a related development in the business sector-the development of scientific management.
Alan Stone
Rule by expert received its first major impetus before the Progressive Era and is also connected with a related development in the business sector-the development of scientific management.
Alan Stone
From what we have seen thus far, the insulation of the public from public affairs might take place in a variety of ways. The use of experts presumably operating outside the realm of politics, as if experts do not have values and need not make choices based upon them, was one of the major mechanisms. The regulatory agency which vested a great deal of discretion in these "experts" was one of the most important mechanisms. And the "experts," taking their alleged expertise very seriously, complied by employing an exotic vocabulary which most of the public could not understand and therefore lost interest in-a legacy of progressivism still very much with us.
Alan Stone
Alan Stone
The legacy of progressivism has been that more and more activities once considered political have fallen into the hands of administrators and experts. Of course, the interests represented among the experts have expanded from the businessmen and middle class reformers characteristic of the Progressive Era. Militarists, environmentalists, feminists, etc. are imposing their values upon the rest of society. And in some ways administrators have become sorcerers' apprentices, developing interests aside from those of the groups which helped establish them-the FTC, for example. The courts, too, have become experts and administrators in such matters as civil rights and education. Thus, school busing to achieve the goals of integration is mandated notwithstanding the overwhelming poll opposition of black and white parents. But, at last, popular resentment at the work-or more accurately failures-of administrators has become a virtual groundswell.
Alan Stone
Alan Stone
William and his ilk do not function well in a gray world, Devil. Black or white only, please.
Moderate and Moderation are different. And... subjective.Moderation? Moderation?! Like FBnBB?!?!!?!
- Sep 13, 2002
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