From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Progress indicates generally forward moving (L. Progressus, a going forward, advance¹)
Now applying that to the social progressive movement, progress is the foward movement of ideas, social structures, norms, laws, etc. Foward movement, when speaking of progressivism, is the movement of ideas towards the ideal utopian standard. Most progressive thinkers, like myself, have utopian standards of equal treatment of all citizens, the freedom to make ANY personal choice, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. All that good stuff.
Pro-gress is the opposite of Re-gress, or to go back. However, what if you must regress in order to progress. I think this is the corner stone of progress. We must "go back" and honestly evaluate ourselves. Once we have evaluated ourselves, then use what we have learned to Progress.
Some progressive people feel that to progress is to move in a different direction socially. Or as some would say, to "go off on a tangent". Even then we must look to the past to develop a foundation for our progressive ideas. Think about it like this. If you were running a marathon race could you win if you began at mile 15? The answer is no. You must start from the beginning. So, to progress socially we must go back to the beginning, evaluate, then initiate change.
