By Lida Prypchan
The inventor of the shuttle contributed more to humanity than whoever conceived of innate ideas. (Voltaire)
Progress is the unfolding of civilization. It is the progression of concepts that foster development, concepts that combat everything that is the very opposite of progress: barbarism, lack of culture, decadence. Progress is as much the law of the moral and intellectual worlds as the law of the physical world. In which of these three worlds has the twentieth century progressed? Could it be the moral world?
There were few treatises on progress in all the extremely varied literature left us by the Greeks, since most of them considered history to be a vicious cycle. The Stoics advised mankind not to expect anything from the future. Even the Epicureans enjoyed their pleasures bleakly and seem to have believed that this world was only as good as it could be and that everything in it was a necessary evil.
What else but pessimism could one expect from an Athens that was no longer free? Similar desperation echoes throughout the history of Rome and classical Latin literature. Lucretius said: “Mankind progresses step by step.” However, when he was asked whether our progress was an illusion, he would answer, “Yes, nothing ever changes.”
But this was centuries ago. If he lived among us now, what would he say about our present civilization? He would assuredly be impressed by our advances and the many devices invented to instantaneously satisfy our every whim and desire. Nevertheless, he would wonder if we are mentally, physically or morally better human beings than our ancestors, who had to use their hands and legs much more. Perhaps, to prove his thesis that nothing ever changes, he would ask whether a certain wife had done her husband in with a steam iron and if the answer was yes, he would conclude, “The difference lies in the means, not in the intent, since killing husbands is an ancient pursuit. What if all our progress were nothing but an improvement in our methods, not in our purposes?
