The claim that the human race has progressed, and will progress, in anything like a linear fashion is hardy self-evidently true. Ask the Maya who scrabble in their corn patches in the shadow of their once-great cities, or the Khmer whose mass graves lie in the shadow of their monuments. Ask the Americans, fwhose republic was founded by Washington, Adams and Jefferson, and is now in the hands of reprobate heirs of plutocrats such as Ted Kennedy and W.

“Progressive” is the former euphemism for fellow travelers of the American Communist Party, and today is a compromise term for people who want to be more robust rebels than “liberals” but don’t want to suffer the opprobrium engendered by embracing socialism.

For all its cranky archaism, I like the epithet “pinko,” although it will never do in a faculty lounge.