Valerie, lots of people believe in progress, but very few of them are self-described “progressives”. Those who own the label nowadays are largely people like yourself – misanthropic reactionaries complaining endlessly about how society is not living up to their expectations, while overlooking the concrete evidence of real progress.

Your articles are almost a parody of the ABC’s “grumpy guide” series.

You point to one area of progress: growing life expectancy, but then complain that the elderly are not as “frisky as they expected to be”. Really?

You sneer at “McMansions” where others might celebrate the improvements in our housing stock; and at people who have the temerity to mow their nature strips with motor mowers; and at people with black cars, though data show that by far the most popular colours for cars are white and silver.

http://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/any-colour-you-like-as-long-as-its-white-20140309-34e0p.html

Rather than simply projecting your disapproval of other people’s lifestyle choices, why not look at the actual evidence?

The ABS helpfully has a website dedicated to “Measuring Australia’s Progress”. It does show that some indicators have gone backwards in the past decade (resilient economy and sustaining the environment) , but many more have shown progress: health, safety, learning and knowledge, opportunities, jobs, prosperity, enhancing living standards, international economic engagement, healthy built environments, and participation.

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/1370.0~2013~Main%20Features~Homepage~1

It doesn’t measure the incidence of hand-mower use on nature strips, though

Rhian, I think you have made the mistake of taking this article seriously.

It's pure satire, from start to finish.

Nobody could possibly read "even the women’s magazines taught the fun of being virtuous" without collapsing into giggles.

Pericles

I hope you're right, but combined with Valerie's previous articles, it's a long-running gag

How can one speak of 'progress' when there is no agreement whatsoever which way is forward and which way is back.

Facts are common to all sane people, values are not.

The cruel thing is to tie different people together who are walking in different directions, so now one's progress is the other's retreat.

Why force a state so big, in the case of Australia a whole continent, binding presumably as "nation" people of conflicting values - those who want to use motor-mowers and those who rather keep the flowers untouched?

There is no "right" or "wrong" and if everyone gets to have their autonomy and live only with those people with whom they share most values, then everyone can progress and nobody will be pulled backwards by others.