Ineffectual Religion
If you engage a personal motivation coach or mentor to improve your performance as a leader – as most top executives and successful entrepreneurs will have done at some stage – you will find that, while they have their different methods and emphases, they share common principles. The behaviour in relation to goals taught by Progressivism is the opposite to that urged by high performance coaches.
Begin with the end in mind, perhaps the most memorable of Covey’s Seven Habits. Start with a clear understanding of your destination.
This is because continually reminding yourself of your destination – what you desire ultimately above all else – is a great motivator and a reason to make the effort to raise your performance. Identifying your goals, keeping them in the front of your mind, and measuring your movement towards your goals is common to all motivational programmes. Some encourage you to visualise living in the end state of your goals. How quickly progressivists would tire of have no one to denounce. So much more satisfying to be on the never-ending ride to utopia than to actually exist there.
Also, if you are to put a lot of effort into climbing a tall ladder, you want to make sure it is leaning against the right wall, to make the climb worthwhile.
Progressivism teaches you the opposite. Just continue to take small steps in a predetermined direction. You don’t need to look ahead to see the destination, because the destination does not matter, it is the gradual journey that matters.
Never learning from mistakes and changing direction
Covey imagines a team hacking through the jungle, the leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells. “Wrong jungle!” His colleagues, the hackers and their managers in the undergrowth below respond “Shut up! We’re making progress.”
Now, the terrible truth about Progressivsm, which many of its wiser believers secretly and shamefully suspect deep down, is that the ultimate nirvana does not exist, or is most unlikely to ever be reached. If they were to articulate a vision for the perfect Progressive future it would be all too easy for critical thinkers to ridicule it, to find holes in it, to point out that it would not work or is unattainable.
Much better to look around for any social disparity and to gnash their teeth and rend their garments in horror at little inequalities. Under the protection of the Great God, “Equality”, they can proclaim themselves the fighters for justice as another social norm is torn down. Enjoy the battle, forget where the war is taking us.