Progress is More Than Thinking

Defining progress is a complex procedure as there is no universally accepted notion of what it is exactly that is progressive. At first I thought that defining progress was a waste of time and a rather elementary topic but I have found myself contemplating the concept since signing up as a blogger on this website. What progress is is defined by what progress is not.

Writing on a progressive website for a scholarship is not progressive. Writing on a progressive website for no compensation whatsoever is still not progressive. It's not progressive to have progressive ideas, it is progressive to put progressive ideas into action. One can conceive of the idea of civil rights but it's not progressive until those thoughts are acted upon.

Progressive is taking those ideas that you hold strongly—be they ideological or otherwise—and not simply vocalizing them but actually serving as a living example to ensure that the change you believe needs to take place does in fact take place. I for example am a progressive animal rights activist; I don't just think or express my view that animals have rights, I physically demonstrate my belief by adhering to a vegan lifestyle everyday.

We define certain people and their movements as progressive because of the lifestyles and practices with which they associate themselves. If ideas and views defined progress we would all be very progressive individuals but such is not the case. Instead we reserve the term for those who make a significant difference in the world we live in. Progress is not ideologically-based, in fact it need not apply to ideology at all. Yes, Martin Luther King, Jr. was progressive for leading the civil rights movement in the United States but so was Henry Ford for popularizing the assembly line.

In short, progressive is what most of us are not. Most of us have ideas and they run rampant in our heads and our hearts but rarely are they put into practice. A progressive is a person who does not simply say "that's terrible," he or she says "That's terrible. I am going to do something to change that." The progressive hardcore band Earth Crisis has a t-shirt with a quote that essentially captivates the concept of progressivism: "Don't let your outrage for injustice end where your selfishness begins."