A Cheyenne high school teacher I have a lot of respect for challenges students who use the word “progress.” He asks them “where is progress? what IS progress? show me ONE instance of progress in the world and you can use that word in my class.” As I was doing some reading for my Brit Lit II class, I came across a convincing argument for the existence of progress in John Stuart Mill’s “The Subjugation of Women.”
“For, what is the peculiar character of the modern world– the difference which chiefly distinguishes modern institutions, modern social ideas, modern life itself, from those of times long past? It is, that human beings are no longer born to their place in life, and chained down by an inexorable bond to the place they are born to, but are free to employ their faculties, and such favourable chances as offer, to achieve the lot which may appear to them most desirable.” ~ John Stuart Mill, The Subjugation of Women 1869
The election’s dismal results check back any progress that this country might have made
You’re telling me! Despite the fact that CNN’s exit poll showed 45% of Americans disapprove the War in Iraq, the only candidate who opposes the war in Iraq garnered less than 1% of the vote. What rubbish.