From The Editor: Bending The Arc Of Progress
Andrew Creagh considers the arc of progress and whether the pendulum is swinging away from us.
And never going back.
Gladiators. They’re fun to watch now in movies and TV shows, with their bulging muscles and slutty little leather skirts, but the reality of being sent into the arena to be slaughtered, even by a very hot Muscle Mary, must’ve been horrific.
That this was considered an acceptable form of entertainment 1,600 years ago is mind-boggling. People will look back at Love Island and think the same thing in years to come. But what is even more interesting, I think, is that humanity moved on, decided that death in the arena was no longer acceptable, and we became more humane.
The “arc of progress” is a phrase popularised by Martin Luther King Jr that refers to the long-term historical trend of human societies to improve rights, equality, prosperity, and safety, even if progress is uneven or slow. It’s an optimistic view that history trends away from oppression and barbarism. The phrase originates from a 19th-century sermon by slavery abolitionist Theodore Parker.
History shows, however, that it’s not really an arc moving in a smooth line. It’s more of a zig-zag or pendulum. Rights are won, gains are made, but those rights can be lost, and those gains can be taken away. It’s up to us to continue bending the arc, proactively, towards a better world.
At the moment, the pendulum appears to be swinging away from us. Democracy has experienced a significant global decline over the last 20 years, marked by a rise in authoritarian regimes and a shrinking number of liberal democracies. For the first time in over two decades, the world has more autocracies than democracies, with 45 countries currently in democratic backslide.
It’s easiest to see this change in the US. To see it now, with leaders who are openly racist, with domestic policies that oppress cultural minorities and migrants, and efforts to degrade democratic processes, shows that darn pendulum is not swinging towards the betterment of humanity.
Reactions to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance were revealing. Most Americans enjoyed it very much. But one Congressional candidate, Laura Loomer, felt no shame in denouncing it as “not white enough for me”, seeing it as “illegal aliens and Latin hookers twerking.”
Women in the US have already lost their hard-won right to an abortion, and now some politicians are floating the idea of rolling back marriage equality. It seems impossible – until it’s not.
In DNA #314, our Straight Mate is former rugby player and now sports journalist Peter Fitzsimons. On the subject of gay rights in Australia, Matthew Myers asks him if he thinks we are in danger of going backwards. Peter’s response is beautifully blunt: “All those commentators who said that if we embrace marriage equality, people will marry everything from bridges to dogs… well, where are you now, you fuck wits?”
The gladiatorial games in Rome ended around 404 AD, following the death of a monk named Telemachus. At this time, we need to be brave like Telemachus. Let’s make Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl message a thing: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
Andrew Creagh, Founding Editor
Email your feedback to [email protected]
________________________________________________________________________
