Methods of Social Reproduction

Any social group needs some way to maintain social cohesion. This is just as true of progressive groups as any other sort of group.

A group may be run in a top-down way and with little progressive consciousness and still be more or less progressive in effect. A scientific vaccination program to prevent childhood diseases might be such a program.

On the other hand a progressive group or organization may be united by common values and political beliefs. It might be argued that a group which is united because of values and politics is genuinely progressive while the other kind of organization, based on pay or a draft or some involuntary participation is not. Of course outcomes need to be evaluated not just levels of political consciousness. Organizations often operate with some democracy. Of course some do not.

I tend to think that political consciousness is crucial in determining whether an organization is progressive or not. Political consciousness determines whether an oppressed group simply accepts a slave mentality, usually forced upon it by the oppressor elites or develops a revolutionary mentality to achieve liberation from exploitation and abuse by those elites.

Of course progressives are more and more thinking about the better society they seek. What would it be like? So that is important as well, but I still shy away from detailed Utopian solutions as general prescriptions. Still, we can hardly overthrow rulers without someone else or some group of people ruling in their stead. What is a substantially liberating way to do that?

Currently I am a lot more interested in whether those we are studying are progressive in their current ideas and current actions. As always the struggle for survival competes with the struggle to create a new world. Of course if we conclude that the problems of our survival both economically and ecologically are the result of an antiquated and destructive system called capitalism then we have to substantially overthrow whatever is bad in that system.