Progressives, take note …

… In Abstentia Out: Progress.

… progress is a very simple notion and process, that is, one begins from some point and progresses from there. The word simply relates to movement. And so within the whole process of Progress in the modern sense from, lets simplify, the Industrial Revolution onwards, a process of was set in motion along whose tracks mankind has deigned to progress, i.e. to move; or as Webster's Dictionary describes 'progress': forward movement in time or place . However so deeply ingrained has become the misuse of 'progress' that automatically once it is mentioned in this sense a kind of mental lever is switched in the mind, and instead of progress simply inferring movement along a certain course, it is universally implied that this movement includes inescapably an ever more unfolding utopia along the pathways of this movement. The word has been completely distorted to signify that rather than simply movement in a certain direction Progress also implies that this movement is to somewhere better than earlier inhabited.

Also, as C.S. Lewis observed, if you discover you're going in the wrong direction, progress consists in retracing your steps.