Revisiting “Beware of The Progressive in You”

Thinking in principles is in short supply but more urgent than ever.

Only five days left until the 8/15 launch of the ebook version of “Think Right or Wrong, Not Left or Right” A 21^st Century Citizen Guide (3^rd expanded edition). Thanks to those who have preordered. If you haven’t yet, get your copy today and help improve the sales stats, in addition to getting a terrific read. The paperback will tentatively be available 8/26 assuming I can get past the Amazon self-publishing hurdles. I may need to consult Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone or Rai Benjamin. Thanks for your support! 

It looks like those of us in the U.S. will have the pleasure of choosing (or not) between two progressive presidential candidates come November. “Progressive” in the sense that both shun thinking in principles in favor of what is supposedly pragmatic or practical, of “what works.” In this context, it means what gets them ahead and gets them what they want politically and personally, individual Americans be damned. Stated differently, as thinking in principles is inescapable, refusing, evading or being unable to think in principles means defaulting to the false principle that there are no principles. 

I don’t know to what extent Ms. Harris’s and Mr. Trump’s education shaped their method of thinking, but their political record makes it clear that either thinking in principles was not emphasized, or they chose not to absorb the message. Case in point, the latter distancing himself from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 which tries to provide an agenda for the presumptive next Republican president. Mind you, this agenda is a mix of good and terribly bad ideas. But it is an attempt at drawing on some fundamental, albeit flawed, principles (a subject for another day). But being bound by principles doesn’t appeal to Mr. Trump who rather flies by the seat of his pants according to what his emotions of the moment tell him. 

Being unable or unwilling to think in principles—explicitly or implicitly—is not limited to presidential candidates of every political stripe but is something that may consciously or subconsciously afflict all of us. About decade ago, I wrote “Beware of The Progressive in You.” I argued that even the most severe critics of progressivism among us may be handicapped by the fact that our education exposed us to the progressive mantra of emphasizing the pragmatic, ”the practical,” over thinking in principles. Unfortunately, the message is more urgent than ever, so I figured it deserves another look (with minimal updates). Let me know what you think. 

Beware of The Progressive in You   

Here’s a thought that has been forming in my head the last couple of months and that I’d like your feedback on: 

The progressive movement has been so successful in shaping our education system that many of today’s critics of progressivism are rendered less effective in their activism by the fact that they have themselves been crippled by a progressive education. 

Let me provide some context. 

Progressivism has rightfully become a dirty word in freedom and liberty loving circles. Progressive era presidents from Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson to Herbert Hoover and FDR have come under increased scrutiny. Americans are starting to realize that the source of many of the individual rights violations we experience today can be traced back to the politics of the 1890s to 1940s: anti-trust regulation, the Federal Reserve, the federal income tax, and the entire New Deal, to mention some of the worst offenders. 

Yet, the area where progressives have done the most damage is not in politics but in our schools. During the progressive era Americans were drawn to progressive education with its promise to provide children with a practical education for life. What is wrong with that, you ask? Well, it depends on the definition of “practical”. 

The progressive version of a practical education came with strings attached. Practicality, they said, requires dispensing with all absolute principles and standards. They rejected permanent truths and claimed that “truth is that which works”. They said that no facts can be known with certainty in advance, and that anything may be tried by rule-of-thumb and by trial and error. In the name of practicality, progressive educators shunned principles. 

But the truth is quite the opposite. The number one purpose of a proper education is to teach the child to think in principles by integrating facts from many subjects such as history, literature, science, and math. If you learn to think in principles, you have the method to acquire and integrate new knowledge on your own for the rest of your life. This is what constitutes a true practical education for life. 

Progressive education officially fell out of fashion in the 1950s. But it has continued to rule American education through several generations of progressive educators that have passed on their legacy to today’s teachers and educational establishment. As a result, our progressive-dominated government (public) education system has shaped the minds of the vast majority of Americans over the past 100 years. 

This has had a profound impact on freedom and liberty minded people, the people who generally loathe progressives, which brings me back to my initial thought: 

The progressive movement has been so successful in shaping our education system that many of today’s critics of progressivism are rendered less effective in their activism by the fact that they have themselves been crippled by a progressive education. 

What I mean is that many men and women who are fighting for freedom and liberty have either problems thinking in principles or dismiss principled thinking as irrelevant. Ask yourself if at some point or another you have rejected a seemingly correct principle as being impractical, pie-in-the-sky, or the stuff that dreams are made of? Or perhaps you have argued that time is too short, that we don’t have the luxury to worry about principles but instead must be pragmatic? If yes, chances are you’re a victim of a progressive-influenced education. 

To some extent this is understandable. In the daily grind, when we’re down in the activist trenches, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture. And it is obviously not made any easier by the fact that we weren’t taught thinking in principles properly growing up. But forgetting about or dismissing the principles that should guide our activism is a lethal mistake. 

The good news for all of us who missed out on it in school is that thinking in principles can be learned. How? In short, beware of the progressive in you that is whispering “shun principles!” The following “therapy” seems to work for me: 

1. I’ve made a habit of always asking myself what a principled solution grounded in reality looks like for a particular issue. Using education as an example, the principle is, you guessed it, respecting and protecting individual rights in education by getting the government out of it. 

2. The principle may appear impractical (in progressive lingo) at first glance, so I proceed with finding a few how-to-get-from-here-to-there scenarios that illustrate how to implement the principle in practice. To continue with the education example, here are some ideas (from the book). 

3. Finally, I try to address the potential objections, and adjust the scenarios as needed. 

If you train yourself to look for a principled solution grounded in reality to every issue, and subsequently outline a practical path for getting from here to there while addressing the potential objections along the way, you will have found a good method for fighting collectivists/statists in general, and the progressive kind in particular. They will continue to obstruct your road to a brighter future, but now you’re properly armed to win not only the next battle, but the war. 

I’d like to hear your thoughts on this. Do you agree with my assessment of the impact of progressive education? Do you have any hints and tips of your own on how to train yourself in thinking in principles?