Essence

The essence of ‘progressivism’ isn’t that it is rational - it is actually ludicrously irrational when examined a little, but this won’t bother its committed adherents in the slightest. Its spiritual essence is that it is perverse. So its very irrationality, or intellectual perversion, is it in its ‘purity’.

One quick example: in Huxley’s Brave New World, which is a vision of a future world ensuing from unrestrained progress idolatry, people are mass-produced artificially and one of the most shocking words to its citizens, which induces horror and revulsion, is “mother.” To even say the word equates to a blasphemous obscenity. So the perversion of the mother-child relationship and phenomenon is an integral part of this world. Under the Biden administration, which is obviously propelled by radical progressivism, its ‘medical bureaucrats’ were in official terminology recently replacing “mother” with “birthing person” - exactly in line with Huxley’s point. This isn’t some spirit of intellectual and rational advancement. It’s a spirit of subversion and perversion - of intentional perverting of humanity itself. 

edit: To add, there is a dual point to this subversion. Within progressivism the desired destination point is the totalitarian state, to which its citizens offer complete obedience. And so first of all the subversion of the mother-child relationship is functional or utilitarian: it weakens obstacles like conflicting emotional ties which may counter or offset state indoctrination and subservience. The other point to the perversion though is perversion for its own sake, and this is the higher ideal. It is the spiritual core at the heart of things.