A general prohibition of child labor is incompatible with the existence of large-scale industry and hence an empty, pious wish. Its realization -- if it were possible -- would be reactionary
Critique of the Gotha Programme-- Appendix
The Swiss critical theorist Rahel Jaeggi, in her recent book Progress and Regression, seeks to distinguish ‘progress’ from mere technological development or change. Progress entails injustice being overcome through collective action over time, with outcomes that come to appear obviously right.
Jaeggi uses the example of corporal punishment in schools, something that was once treated as normal but is now considered beyond the pale thanks to a reflexive process of argument, campaigning and consensus formation. This is evidence of progress, not just policy change or modernisation. Progress also provokes the hallucinatory forces of reaction that swirl around us today, which are based on fantasies of the way life was lived in a poorly remembered past.
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