"Once upon a time there were Progressives who actually believed in progress..."

'From Wealth is Good to Wealth is Bad,' etc.
- diagram from Stephen Hicks's book Explaining Postmodernism

"Once upon a time there were Progressives who actually believed in progress, who despite their flaws did believe in a brighter and better future. These were supplanted c. 1970 by a new Left with the new motto 'Learn to live with less, you hate-filled greedy bastards!' The Apollo programme was the last hurrah of the old Progressives, and Earth Day environmentalism was a manifestation of the new Left that supplanted them.
          "Now those actually-for-progress Progressives had some major flaws. One was a willingness to bulldoze people’s personal plans in favour of their own Big Plans For Society. Another was to seriously underestimate just how poisonous socialism and government regulation are to an economy. But they still favoured a better, brighter, more prosperous future in a way the 'Learn to live with less!' Earth Day leftists did not."

          ~ commenter 'Deep Lurker' at Samizdata