reactionary progressivism is actually a practical program and has been applied many times. the founders of the american republic, for example, based their revolt against england not on a radical agenda for progress, but on the ancient british constitution and the rights of british citizens. confucius is often portrayed as an arch-conservative, but his extreme emphasis on ritual propriety and tradition constituted a radical reform agenda in a china disintegrating into small warring states. bill monroe invented bluegrass music by trying to make music in the 1940s that sounded like it came from 1880. progress and return are, let us say, always complexly related, and the choice is never flat.