Progress and the "Progressive Era"

Progress and the "Progressive Era" READINGS:
Larson, The Devil in the White City
Dubois, The Souls of Black Folk
Excerpts from Jacoby, Freethinkers

My major take-away from our class on these readings really solidified my current opinion of progress as an overall, ongoing process rather than as any definable culminating point.  If one defines history as cycles, or a spiral, or linear, the timeline is still riddled with both successes and failures.  In The Devil in the White City, there are many examples of seeming "progress," such as improvement in sanitation laws, attention to working and living standards, the innovation of the zipper, electric kitchen, Cracker Jack, and acid batteries.  Simultaneously, though, this historical narrative develops another plot -- of murder.  One might ask, how can humankind define any of the aforementioned achievements as expressions of progress without considering the heartless acts of a serial killer?  Is it even conceivable...morally and ethically correct...viable to say that the World's Fair was at all "progressive" if such cruel and inhumane acts as murder also occurred?

How can we reconcile the two polar opposites of material progress and human innovation with immorality and inhumanity? By considering progress as an ongoing process.  We must hark back to Condorcet's speculations of the indefinite perfectibility of man. It is difficult for a human being to grasp such a concept that does not focus solely on historical events, but rather an abstract culmination of small steps toward a moral betterment and cultural evolution of society.

Even the movement of the Freethinkers in terms of secularism creates a necessary tension that allows humankind to advance in thinking and engagement in the world.  The Freethinkers provoked thought in areas such as education, religion, and problems of daily life, just as other intellectuals such as Dubois represent the insight of society and its acceptance, treatment, and future relations with black folk.

Progress is not a thing of the past, the present, or the future -- at least in isolation.  It is a concept of growth, of ongoing development, and of gradual revelation of truth that underlies humankind's subjective view of the world and the happenings that make up history.