Ben Cobley

3 weeks ago | verdur.in | Ben Cobley |Rupert Read |Fraser Myers

The idea of progress, one of the animating concepts of Western civilisation, permeates our understanding of history and shapes the way we imagine the future. From Marxism and neoliberalism to today’s identity politics, progress offers a framework of knowledge and confidence: an assurance that things can get better and a justification for our desires. Progress is thus a form of authority resting on confidence in a future under which ‘change’, ‘transformation’, and the ‘new’ are superior.