The Progressive Movement Needs to Be Put on Time Out

“Do better,” the classic progressive epithet. 

How many times have we heard that someone needs to “do better,” or that we, as a society, can “do better?”

We can “do better” to address homelessness in our cities.

We can “do better” to deal with our inherent racial biases. 

We can “do better” to protect and preserve our environment. 

All of these things are wonderful. I would love for everything in the world to be better. I would love for all of us to “do better.” 

But doing is hard, and I have a sneaking suspicion that most of the people accusing us of not doing well enough are secretly guilty of not doing anything at all.

I am a teacher. I have spent a lot of time in the classroom. I have also spent a lot of time listening to people talk about what should and should not be done in the classroom. 

As a teacher, one of the first things you learn is that the classroom is not a safe work environment like an office.

It is a C.I.A. blacksite – there is no backup, you are on your own, and, if you fail, there is no one to blame but yourself. 

In any given 45 minute class, anything can happen. 

It would be nice to believe that a teacher can study educational theory, prepare a lesson plan, and deliver that perfect lesson without any hiccups – but that does not happen. 

Education tends to be a very progressive space, so you tend to get a lot of progressive teachers who, inevitably, find themselves torn between their training and their reality. 

A friend of mine put it like this. 

“As a progressive, I am super opposed to collective punishment – like, all the way. It is so bad. But, as a teacher, I understand that… sometimes there’s no other option. Nothing gets kids to change their behavior like collective punishment.” 

If you were to say this is a progressive space, you would get a very stern talking to about how you should find a different way to manage your classroom without collective punishment. 

So, for the teacher, the choice is this: use collective punishment (like no one gets recess is Johnny keeps talking), or don’t and risk spending your entire lesson trying to find a progressively-acceptable alternative.

And people wonder why students matriculating to Columbia never read a full length novel in high school.

In my experience, the majority of people pushing for teachers and schools to “do better,” are not actually teachers. 

The same is true across the board. 

Has anything the progressive movement has attempted to make better in the past 10 years actually improved? 

Doing anything is very difficult.

It requires time, effort, patience, money, agony, stress, sweat, you name it. 

But saying something could be done better is very easy. 

It is literally just two words.

How many times have these two words, “do better,” been weaponized against those who are just trying to do something to begin with?

Could I do better in my fight against antizionism and the unraveling of American civil society?

I am sure I could – but, believe me, I’m trying my best, and it’s really damn hard. 

Have I made mistakes? Have I said the wrong things? Have I offended people? 

Of course I have. 

Did I know what I was doing and how I should do it when I got started? 

Of course not.

Do I know any of that stuff better now?

Absolutely, not.

American culture was once a culture of doers and builders, of people who believed in themselves and their abilities to create.

It was literally called a “can-do” attitude because people believed, “I can-do anything.” 

Now, Americans have a “could do better,” attitude where they look at everything based on what’s wrong with it instead of what’s right. 

Those who do will always be criticized by those who do not. 

After I challenged him, his response to me was that, “the quantity of your production has no correlation with the veracity of your ideas.” 

Super pithy, super sharp. 

Of course, he has never read my work nor challenged himself to understand my ideas, so this is just another way of telling me to do better without actually investigating what it is that I do. 

Unfortunately, the progressive movement has become so self-righteous that they have fully forgotten that there is a real world which exists outside of their new theology.

The progressive movement needs to be put on time-out. 

It has gotten too big for its britches, and it is destroying itself and the country from the inside-out. 

The greatest concern is for the progressives themselves – can you imagine what your mental health is going to be like if you only know how to say “do better” and never “good job”?

It is actually a disease of the mind, one which I suffered from for many years. 

If you are taught and trained to always see the problems with something before its merit, you will always see yourself as your problems before you see your merit. 

It is why there is such a high correlation between progressives and depression. 

Bertrand Russell once said that Marx was more interested in tearing down the bourgeoisie than in building up the proletariat, and nothing could be truer of our modern progressives. 

California went to Trump by 12 more points this year over 2020. 

In a state where Republicans rarely vote, that number reflects the anger vote – people who showed up to the polls just because they were angry.

There were (and still are) more Trump/Vance signs in my neighborhood than ever before, and that’s not because Encino suddenly became a super conservative place – it’s because people are tired of this nonsense. 

So to the people who spend more time telling others to do better than doing anything themselves – shut up. 

The world belongs to those who make it – if you are not willing to make the world you want to live in, don’t complain about the job other people are doing trying to pick up your slack.  

Spread Love, Spread Light,

Am Yisrael Chai

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