Rather than see a complex society with progressive and regressive forces, the activist sees only black or white – tyranny or utopia, oppressor or victim.
Green Lantern has been portrayed all the way through as a representative of the regressive forces of the law, and Green Arrow has been played as the hippy idealist; suddenly Green Lantern snaps and he destroys the aircraft with a green beam.
In each of these eras, regressive forces reignited the progressive ideals on which America is built.
A fundamental war has been waged in this nation since its founding, between progressive forces pushing us forward and regressive forces pulling us backward.
With affiliates like Hitchens gone, the rational community in Africa will need more resilience and tenacity to confront regressive forces that sentence our women and children to death for imaginary crimes and undermine the dignity of African lives.
Finally, it would recognize that Americans of all backgrounds have made this country what it is today and reject the regressive forces of exclusion that threaten America's promise of opportunity for all.
Given the indicators, I think that the United States of America could be nearing its zero moment: the point at which people can either let regressive forces turn our nation backwards to its unsavory, unjust past or march forward towards a diverse and inclusive society that makes the possibility of achieving the American dream a realistic goal for all.
The nation's rapidly changing racial and ethnic demographics and growing wealth inequality suggest that if the regressive forces win, we will be heading towards a deeply divided country as stratified and destructively immoral as any of the world's most oppressive systems.
Moreover, this regressive effect will appear in all categories of expenditure if prices increase, no matter whether this is caused by political decisions or market forces.
The riots are of course rooted in common, regressive economic forces playing out across every continent of the planet - but those forces themselves are symptomatic of a deeper, protracted process of global system failure as we transition from the old industrial era of dirty fossil fuels, towards something else.
