There’s a café near me in Paris called Le Progrès. I imagine its pavement tables a century ago, populated by French socialists in hats and elaborate moustaches — men (yes, almost all were men) who believed in progress, arguing about how to uplift the poor.
When I wrote about Le Progrès a decade ago, I said that the idea of progress had been privatised. Most people in 2012 no longer believed that societies progressed, but they still thought individuals like themselves could. The café’s toned patrons, whose very bodies advertised the notion of personal progress through ceaseless labour, intended to make sure their own children would be better off even if humanity wasn’t.
But that was then. A decade on, even family progress seems improbable. Look at the news: levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere are setting new records and rising faster than ever. The cost of living crisis risks teetering over into the second recession in two years.