{"product_id":"the-progress-trap-the-modern-left-and-the-false-authority-of-history-9781509567621","title":"The Progress Trap: The Modern Left and the False Authority of History","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe idea of progress, one of the animating ideas of Western civilization, has now gone global. From Marxism and neoliberalism to today's mutant identity politics, it offers a framework of knowledge and confidence: an assurance that things will get better and that history is on our side. However, in doing this it creates a form of authority that is simultaneously imaginary and dishonest, resting on confidence in a future that is really contingent and unknowable.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Progress Trap\u003c\/i\u003e, Ben Cobley looks at this progressive mindset as a form of power, conferring a right to act and control others. 'Change', 'transformation' and the 'new' are the superior values, meaning destruction of the old: people, cultures and nature. It is a trap into which nearly all of us fall at times, so attractive are its stories and familiar its techniques.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHard-hitting but thoughtful, the book is a meditation on the sinister consequences of the progressive way of being: for ourselves, for our democracy, for our art and for the pursuit of real knowledge.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBen Cobley\u003c\/b\u003e is a journalist and former Labour Party activist. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Tribe: The Liberal-Left and the System of Diversity.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Polity Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51474987286802,"sku":"9781509567621","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_98f22a4c-f7b5-4d9f-adfc-a03af8dd549c.jpg?v=1752584550","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-progress-trap-the-modern-left-and-the-false-authority-of-history-9781509567621","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}