Doug Henwood wrote:
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> This whole thread started in reaction to a claim by Noam Chomsky,
Not really. The mention of Chomsky's phrase was merely an occasion for expressing some noodling I've been doing for many years. Chomsky was not in it from the beginning as far as I am concerned, and the thread did not _veer_ from its point of departure as far as I am concerned but achieved better focus on my actual concerns than did my original post.
If progress is automatic; if things get better year by year, then indeed there would be no point to being leftist.
My interest is and was on the consciousness of u.s. workers (or the populace in general), and the role in that consciousness of the idea of automatic progress -- the "Idea of Progress" as it emerged from the 18th c. and developed in the 19th up to August 1914 -- and also of automatic assumption (grounded ultimately I suppose in the Indian Wars) that America = Civilization.
I also quibbled with the adverb Chomsky used. Cf. his claim that the u.s. is the "greatest nation on earth" or something like that. I doubt that he himself would cling too tenaciously to either expression. But again, that is not and was not my central concern.
Carrol