Progress Is A Pipe Dream

Progress Is A Pipe Dream

The story of progress -- that each generation is better than the one before it -- is about 200 years old. These 200 years have been the most tumultuous and destructive years in the history of the planet. In fact, the history of civilization is not a story of progress, but a story of continuous decline.
The Christian tradition begins in the Garden of Eden of the hunters and gatherers. The Fall symbolizes the dawn of civilization. Yahweh, a Semitic storm god, could see that farming was destroying Creation. For much of the Old Testament, he urges his Chosen People to destroy the hideous cities of the defilers of the Earth. But the farmers beat the nomads, and the Christian prophets tell us that we are now sitting in the shadows of an onrushing Armageddon.

In the Norse myths, it's the same cycle. The human gods conquer the powerful forces of nature, rule for a while, then are destroyed by the revenge of nature at the battle of Ragnarok.

The ancient Greeks saw human decline as a series of historic ages. Hesiod writes of the Golden Age: "They lived like gods, free from worry and fatigue; old age did not afflict them; they rejoiced in continual festivity." This was followed by the Silver Age, a matriarchal era of agriculture, when men obeyed their mothers. This was followed by the Bronze Age, a patriarchal era of war -- "Their pitiless hearts were as hard as steel; their might was untamable, their arms invincible." This was followed by the Iron Age, a time "when men respect neither their vows, nor justice, nor virtue."

Today we live in the Toxic Age. The planet is overheating, there is a massive hole in the ozone layer, species extinction has become a global epidemic, the remaining forests are being furiously destroyed, the fish in the ocean are almost gone, our soil is pouring into the sky and sea -- and every day we teach our children stories of wonderful progress, and the glories of civilization.