[b][i]"And progress is not intelligently planned;
It's the facade of our heritage, the odor of our land."[/i][/b]
This set the mood for the rest of the song for me. It's talking about the heritage of the USA of course - but more spefically the battle for independance away from the British Empire. The "facade" is that they thought they were doing the right thing, doing things a "better" way - when in fact they were splitting the world apart even more. Taking one step further away from unity.
Progress, in this song, is about coming together under one rule (mostly through force and invasion).

[b][i]"It's progress, 'til there's nothing left to gain,
As the dearth of new ideas makes us wallow in our shame."[/i][/b]
Nothing left to gain - meaning no land left to gain. Humans have almost completely populated the entire planet - or at least the land.
As for the "lack of new ideas", it implies conquest is still on the agender, under the pretence of unifying the planet. But this goal was inherited from the British Empire (as mentioned with the "[i]heritage[/i]" line at the beginning), who in turn inherited it from the Vikings and Romans. It's a goal that has been prevalent throughout history and is still around today.

[b][i]"So before you go to contribute more
To the destruction of this world you adore,
Remember life on Earth is but a flash of dawn
We're all part of it as the day rolls on."[/i][/b]
I don't see this as 'life on Earth' in general, it seems more relavent to human life - which is very much in its infancy - and compared to how old the Earth is, is insignificant.
So instead of helping destroy a the planet and the human race, we should remember we are all on this Earth together, as one race - the human race. We are stunting our own growth by developing weapons of destruction, rather than developing technology that will better humankind.

[b][i]"And progress is a message that we send.
One step closer to the future, one inch closer to the end."[/i][/b]
We keep telling ourselves all the bad we are doing is for the greater good, when in fact it will be our downfall.

[b][i]"I say that progress is a synonym of time.
We are all aware of it but it's nothing we refine."[/i][/b]
The first line is basically saying [i]"Progress = Time"[/i]
The second line is saying that [i]"time" (meaning "progress")[/i] is something every human understands, but the concept of it remains the same. It is basically a repeat of a previous line stating a "lack of new ideas" of how to progress.

[b][i]"And progress is a debt we all must pay."[/i][/b]
We have had real progress in the past, that has truely benefitted us. A lot of what we have in these modern times is owed to this prgress.

[b][i]"Its convenience we all cherish, its pollution we disdain."[/i][/b]
The convenience is doing things under the false pretence of progress - things which do not actually benefit us. Such as war!
People hate war, but they use it to justify a means to an ends. The means to a better life, but in actuallity it's causing chaos, fear, pain, etc.

[b][i]"And the cutting edge is dulling,
Too many people to plow through."[/i][/b]
This is a metaphor. When a knife becomes blunt, it is less effective at cutting. War is becoming less effective, as the human population rises. There is just simply too many people fighting back, and there is no more free land available to take without having to fight for it.

[b][i]"Just keep your fucking distance
And it can't include you."[/i][/b]
In other words, stay out of the war, stay away from conflict, stay away from this false progression that will be our own demise.

This form of "PROGRESS" will only last us until we run out of land to gain.
It's not going to unify us - only tear us apart - making us hate each other more.
We must find new ways, more civilzsed ways. We believe ourselves to be beyond and better than animals - when in fact we are the same: resorting to violence to get what we want.

Bad Religion take a similar stance on war in their other songs.

It's the fact that the populist is blind to see the detrimental effects technology and "advancement" has to offer. Sure, above the surface there are obvious benefits, but there are always two sides to a coin. This coin happens to be top heavy. They will contribute to humanity's demise while being ignorant to the eventual undesired outcome.

"They speak of Progress," but it's not really progress. That is the theme of this song. Progress is the place to ensure the survival of our species, not a race to destroy the world's forests, nor a competition in which we must destroy our competition. By viewing these things, we are actually destroying ourselves.

"Progress is a synonym of time" is the line that got me. I looked at this more as a positive song than that of a negative song. But really thinking about it and analyzing it I can in fact see where it too can be seen as a negative song. I'm kinda want to believe that this song underneath has a positive message. But I also like to mention that progress and "convenience" will lead to the downfall and the end of the world. Now progress in the short term is instant gratification, but in the long run could that instant gratification become horrid and unwanted and could you find yourself looking back and say...fuck!

I think to some extent, besides the literal pitfalls of progress, the song is also a metaphor for the biological nature of life, becoming ordered by increasing the disorder of the surroundings. I think it also has to do with the idea that progress is not a linear expression of human intellectual evolution as we might hope, but a much more chaotic system that in the process of advancing humanity's total knowledge has also altered what it means to be human.

I would like to add that one emphasis of the song seems to be the inability, or even unwillingness of people to make connections in regard to their actions. Like how our dependence upon convenience has rendered us blind to the reality that the convenience is not only false, but ultimately our downfall. This is portrayed in near every line with first the offering of an apparent positive and then juxtaposing that positive with the reality; ex. 'The structure of our heritage as demise comes seething through', 'One step closer to the future, one inch closer to the end', before finally driving it home with 'Before you go and contribute more to the destruction of this world you adore'.

Progress (the progress of the USA more specifically -- 'they speak of progress in red, white and blue') seems to help us all in the short run, but in all reality it does more harm than good. We don't think about the long term ramifications of new ideas. In moving forward we bring the human race closer to its demise. Progress may benefit a select few for the time being, but it ruins countless others in process.