I’m back from the vacation of summer 2025 and will continue my weekly or bi-weekly column here on Substack. Looking forward to fresh new ideas and improved form.
Conservatives attack the ideology of progress from several angles. It’s a path without a destination. It’s a blind-watchmaker doctrine that lacks absolutes and cannot be evaluated or judged, leading to a moral blank cheque. Its true motive for attacking the establishment is resentment of the weak or hatred from the hidden enemy. It is hypocritical – those who seek to change the current system do it so that they can end up in power in the new one.
These are classic lines of argument, and they can all be valid. But I want to give you a unique perspective from René Girard’s mimetic theory. It shows why modernity is so beholden to progress.
According to Girard, the imperative of progress is driven by the way in which individuals relate to one another in modern society. I wrote about this in my previous post on Imitation and Innovati…