Once a Current Opinion: about progress

In 1921, an unnamed author with an American magazine, Current Opinion, wrote this:

People do not want, first of all, to progress. They want “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and they only accept progress as a means to this end.

Hence when progress threatens to bring the whole structure of society down in a crash, the people revolt against revolt.^*)

The author was on the safe side with a number of statements about the past – the past as seen from 1921. Understandably, he was not so inerrant about the future as seen from 1921. The “revolt against the revolt”, in his example and view, was Italian fascism, and the revolt it “revolted against” was Bolshevism.

What caught my eyes were the first two lines in the above quote – about what people want. I’m wondering if it is a statement most people worldwide would subscribe to today, and how they would differ, depending on who and where they are.

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Note

^*) Current Opinion, October 1921, page 430 (via oldmagazines.com)

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Related

» How Chiang Kai-shek Blew it, Dec 20, 2010

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