New Progressive Era?

"The only time you come out of the ground is when you smell a profit."
--Big Joe (Kelly's Heroes)

A professor wonders whether the 2020s might usher in a new progressive (a.k.a. socialist) era. The possibility certainly cannot be ruled out. State power has been shooting higher at the expense of social power.

Meanwhile, people are fearful. Under conditions of threat, people are likely to restrict information processing channels and centralize decision-making authority.

Stated differently, when frightened people tend to ignore creative solutions to problems that require voluntary cooperation and, instead, favor single-minded remedies enforced by strong armed agents.

That, my friends, is a situation ripe for progressivism. And statists can smell it.