Hrummmmph. There are advantages to the word "progressivism." If we are serious about assuming the mantle of Teddy Roosevelt then we need to find some way to work with the word and, in the process, break the identification the term now has with ( the sad excuse for ) today's Left. That is, partly what we have going-on is a word war, or "War of the Words." Creatures from Mars arrive in UFOs to teach us how to use language better and to provide Earthlings with better conceptual and communications skills. We are those creatures from Mars. Little Green Radical Centrists. So, let's not surrender any "heritage vocabulary." It can only be a fight but let's, win back all the good words that others have tried to appropriate for nefarious purposes. If you were an historian you might well be sensitive to this. Read texts written in previous decades ( historians read history just about every day ) and that may make absurd sense if we define words in them in modern-day ways. "Don we now our gay apparel," the Christmas carol ( one of about 20 with this problem ) sounds bizarre now. Solution, fight to discredit homosexual use of "gay." Similarly, in the era of the Korean war, the USAF referred to Mig jets as "fagots" ( can be spelled with one or two Gs ). Republicans like to demonize "liberal" and socialist." Why should we accept such word poisoning ? Both words have entirely good and noble meanings. All of this said, I also like your list of alternatives, evolutionary centrism, activist centrism, scientific centrism, etc, each of which can be used in the right context to very goof effect. Billy =============================================== 1/10/2012 9:16:13 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
On Jan 10, 2012, at 8:42 AM, Chris Hahn wrote: a rational progressivism that supports testable change to improve the lot of the entire populace, rather than the traditional American progressivism which moves toward some moralistic utopia. I like your concepts, but I don’t like the word progressivism. It will be too easily be confused with American progressivism which already has a meaning. Instead of rational progressivism, how about “rational improvement” or “rational evolvement”? I'm with Chris; great insight, but potentially confusing terminology. How about: - scientific centrism - progressive centrism (adjective instead of noun) - progressive design - evolutionary centrism - activist centrism - improvisationalism Not quite there yet, but worth working on. As usual, I prefer a name that is oxymoronic and paradoxical in order to inspire cognitive dissonance. A good test would be whether it infuriates Solomon. :-) -- Ernie P. Chris From: [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mike Gonzalez Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 9:32 AM To: radicalcentrism Subject: [RC] Thoughts on this tenet? I want to home-in on this particular tenet and get to the heart of the point (tempered optimism + our brand of centrism = rational progressivism): When pessimism infects centrism, it becomes angry populism. When apathy blends with centrism, it creates the traditional view of the lazy, valueless independent. What is needed, instead, is a tempered positivity in scientific centrism, channeling the best aspects of an ideology that believes in the application of workable solutions in individual, piecemeal fashion to civil society. Consequently, a rejection of pessimism and apathy in favor of sober belief in a society's ability to improve itself is an essential aspect of centrism. The result of this is a rational progressivism that supports testable change to improve the lot of the entire populace, rather than the traditional American progressivism which moves toward some moralistic utopia. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) > Google Group: _http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism_ (http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism) Radical Centrism website and blog: _http://RadicalCentrism.org_ (http://radicalcentrism.org/) -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
