Swamp Rabbit and I were wondering why some people still think progress is inevitable despite evidence that it’s being blocked on all fronts by the sociopath in the White House and his Republican enablers. A case in point:
The Trump administration is rolling back requirements for new, energy-efficient light bulbs. The Energy Department announced the move on Wednesday, withdrawing standards that were to be put in place to make commonly used bulbs more efficient… Critics of the reversal say it will mean higher energy bills and more pollution. “The rollback will eliminate energy-efficient standards for light bulbs that were slated to take effect in January that would save consumers billions of dollars and reduce millions of tons of climate change carbon dioxide emissions,” says Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project.
“I don’t get it,” Swamp Rabbit said, staring out at the swamp from my front porch. “Why’s Trump want to bring back them old bulbs that burn out fast?”
“Nostalgia,” I replied. “He misses lead paint and coal-powered trains and leaded gas for cars and asbestos-contaminated buildings. He hates wind turbines and solar panels, women, immigrants, animals, affordable health care, gun control. He wants to save plastic straws and bring back goose-stepping.”
Swamp Rabbit glared at me. “Don’t be cute, Odd Man. What’s the real reason?”
I shrugged. “It’s hard to tell with sociopaths. Maybe lobbyists for the old light bulb companies got to him. He’s against regulating methane emissions, too. He killed the Clean Power Plan. He’s obsessed with reversing Obama’s policies. We talked about that, remember?”
Swamp Rabbit was playing the pessimist today. “Talk is cheap,” he said. “The peeps care about today, not tomorrow. We ain’t making no progress.”
“Progress is all about stops and starts,” I told him. “Two steps forward, one step back. Or one forward and two back. Thesis and antithesis.”
The rabbit leaned over and spit into the swamp. “I don’t go in much for that Hegelian shit. If we don’t stop moving backwards soon, there ain’t gonna be no time left to move forwards.”
I have to agree with Swamp Rabbit, and Karl Popper, too:
‘It is frankly hard, when reading him, to take him seriously, and not throw up one’s hands at the monstrous intellectual fraudulence.’
The Progress philosophy is a truism when seen in the context of the law of “equal and opposite reaction.”
As long as one keeps in mind the fact that more often then not progress isn’t recognized until the trial and error period has ended.
Edison made a hundred attempts to perfect the light bulb.