Technoprogressives Should Favor Progressive Gains

Many in the United States see evidence of a tectonic shift in public opinion over major issues that have gone nowhere for years.

Take gay marriage, for instance. For the first time, marriage equality is supported by a plurality of Americans. The states of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa already have made it legal, with Vermont coming along in September. California and New York, two of the most populous states in the union, may not be far behind. As hard as it would have been to believe only two years ago, it now seems possible that a majority of states might legalize gay marriage within the next several years. That’s change we can believe in!

Technoprogressives should welcome and celebrate such news.

On another front, the prospects for decriminalizing possession of marijuana in the U.S.—and even the potential for legal distribution, with regulation and taxation—seem to be improving rapidly. President Obama may have downplayed the idea during an online town hall meeting, but that can be seen as just politics. It’s doubtful that he would put much effort into opposing a proposal for federal legalization if and when it reaches the legislative stage.

Again, look back a year or two ago, and such changes would seem just a dream. Today, it’s another issue that American technoprogressives should champion.

Other liberal “hot button” causes also seem likely to move closer to passage within the next year or two. Whether it is reform of the health care industry (with a shift to a single payer system gradually coming closer), or adoption of a carbon cap and trade scheme to combat global warming, or a truly progressive income tax (eventually returning the U.S. to something close to the rates of the 1950s), or an outright ban on handguns—admittedly, a long shot (no pun intended) for now, but we can hope—the prospects of all these idealistic dreams becoming reality seems actually worth believing in, and fighting for.

Assuming such things could happen under an Obama administration with a Democratic House and Senate, then what else might be possible over the next eight years? Outlawing capital punishment, everywhere and forever? Totally ending the bogus “war on drugs”? Letting non-violent offenders out of prison? Instituting a basic income guarantee? Offering free municipal college educations for anybody who wants one and can get passing grades?

These are the kinds of issues that, if passed, will clear the way for even more ambitious proposals on the technoprogressive platform.

• If we want to see all humans—and transhumans—protected in their rights for self-augmentation, enhancement, or modification, then we have to promote the concept of individual human rights today.
• If we desire to live in a world where peace and security are considered a given everywhere around the globe, then we have to support peace efforts in the Middle East and elsewhere, especially when those initiatives involve transnational cooperation.
• If we would hope to see the adoption of a global bill of rights that promises fundamental freedoms, health, welfare, and education for all, then we had better work today for the rights of women, children, gays, people of color, and all minorities to receive the same protection that the privileged classes have always taken for granted.

This is an agenda for technoprogressives in the year 2009. Dream big, but celebrate the incremental steps too, for their accomplishment will make our long-term goals much more likely to be achieved.