Book review: The Progress Trap by Ben Cobley

Historically, the left allied itself to the cause of progress (v tradition). It is a trope that taps into a very understandable and common hope we all have: that whatever problems we face today, tomorrow will be better. Especially if we embrace the left’s proposed political and ethical beliefs! Their confidence arises, in part, because the left has many members from academia and the intelligentsia, and of course, they know best! Ben Cobley’s book debunks their claims to be the bearers of progress.

In his latest book, The Progress Trap: The Modern Left and the False Authority of History, Ben Cobley paints a disturbing view of contemporary culture:

Our world today sometimes feels like it is spinning out of control. The spread of radical political and religious ideologies – and the elevation of their ideologies by our institutions – feels inexorable. Panic seems to be everywhere. (Page vi)

Anxiety spreads about political extremes and a range of phobias and ‘isms’. We lurch between optimism and pessimism, fear and hope, without any reliable anchor. Our leaders seem unable to control events or simply appear out of touch. The technocratic elite pull the levers of power, but little seems to work well, says Cobley. Yet the current so-called ‘progressive left’ holds out the illusion of a great future, if only their ideas are given power and influence.

This is a trap set by woke progressives, argues Cobley. Their view rejects group membership if it is based on nation, family or local community – positive things in his opinion. Other identity groups based on gender or ethnicity are seen as more interesting by progressives, though. Indeed, many progressives today believe that holding the ‘right’ or fashionable opinion on identity politics is what matters most. Anyone else who does not truly believe is irredeemable and damned.

The radical elect know that the historical past is tainted and corrupt and holds back a bright new future. The established or the traditional in society arouses only suspicion in the radical activist. There is no valid inheritance to be passed on to future generations – only a past that needs decolonisation.

Victimhood is elevated to sainthood

Much of this will sound ominously familiar to anyone following cultural or political trends. This often moves beyond a simple left/right binary, with ‘woke’ corporations and companies cultivating a radical or even progressive image, for example.

This can include HSBC’s recent messaging about breaking down borders. Companies have embraced ‘woke’ ideas that are normally associated with the left to give themselves a renewed sense of moral purpose and virtue. DIY enthusiasts who didn’t embrace gender ideology were told by the chief operating officer of the Wickes chain not to shop there. The store stated inexplicably that it was against all conversion therapy, including ‘trans’. Sainsbury’s embraced Black History Month in 2020 and similarly told customers who didn’t appreciate such views to shop elsewhere. Capitalism can at last appear radical and cutting edge!

Leftist moralising meets economic liberalism

The nation-state therefore just becomes part of the production line, says Cobley, not a community with boundaries or identity. Indeed, much of this business thinking reflects a radical left-wing idea that those newly arrived in a country must form a ‘revolutionary subject’ (page 121) – one that would transform and improve the stale, backward-looking population that was already there.

Indeed, any sense of Englishness, for instance, is often seen as a kind of disease that needs to be cured, Cobley points out.

Much of the above can be enforced by rather authoritarian mandatory re-training of a company workforce, for example. Radical ‘woke’ ideas aim to mould the minds of the workers; there are always experts in identity available to ‘improve’ the workforce and check their thinking. What we might say in the workplace could easily ‘harm’ the wellbeing of others.
And it is here that Cobley highlights the importance of thinkers like the late Christopher Lasch, who identified the narcissism at the heart of much modern culture and helped explain the therapeutic ethos influencing much so-called progressive thinking in our society.

Cobley importantly notes:

The idea of therapy bursts beyond the confines of the consulting room and the constraints of professional standards onto society as a whole. The talking cure becomes universal. Whole new disciplines of surveillance and regulation are introduced to control talk, making sure that it benefits society and in particular those groups deemed to have particularly intense therapeutic needs as a result of psychological trauma going back generations. (page 173 / 174)

This undermines our sense of agency, reducing us to a childlike state of dependence, says Cobley.

Activists gripped by narcissism often see the world as an extension of themselves and their feelings. They become enraged by their radical desires not being satisfied; their sense of entitlement is strong. Sadly, in academia for instance, there is a whole new class of bureaucrats and administrators willing to indulge such progressive outbursts.

Cobley’s faith, however, remains with what he terms The Rebel Alliance – those who are willing to intervene and oppose the above tendencies. We can fight back against those who attack tradition, genuine knowledge or independent thought. We need to actively join organisations fighting for free speech.

Just when your think that it’s impossible to say anything more about the culture wars, Ben Cobley manages to produce a thoughtful book in The Progress Trap.

In the light of recently released footage of Henry Nowak’s death at the hands of Vickrum Digwa and the inhumanity of the police’s response when they arrived at the scene, it is not too far-fetched to say the ideology of identitarianism Cobley critiques trenchantly can be fatal. Some may say, not without justification, that police callousness has been a common experience of black people in the past and read what happened to Nowak as an extension of the same thing. The injuries and death of Cherry Croce and Cynthia Jarrett in 1985 are two horrible examples.

But there is an important difference. In the 1980s, if pockets of the police were institutionally racist, they were likely to have been unashamedly so. The police officers who treated the dying Nowak with such a lack of care, were acting as unashamed anti-racists – just as their institutional leaders had trained them to be.

Graeme Kemp is a former civil servant and teacher who has worked in different roles in education from the south-coast of England to Scotland. As well as Don’t Divide Us, he has contributed reviews to The Equiano Project. He is proud to currently live in the Midlands.

The Progress Trap: The Modern Left and the False Authority of History by Ben Cobley is published by Polity Press; Cambridge.