{"id":114,"date":"2011-06-28T12:43:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-28T12:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lidaprypchan.org\/?p=114"},"modified":"2015-07-19T21:39:54","modified_gmt":"2015-07-19T21:39:54","slug":"is-our-progress-an-illusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lidaprypchan.org\/?p=114","title":{"rendered":"IS OUR PROGRESS AN ILLUSION?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Lida Prypchan<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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The inventor of the shuttle contributed more to humanity than whoever conceived of innate ideas. \u00a0(Voltaire)<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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Progress is the unfolding of civilization. \u00a0It is the progression of concepts that foster development, concepts that combat everything that is the very opposite of progress: barbarism, lack of culture, decadence. \u00a0Progress is as much the law of the moral and intellectual worlds as the law of the physical world. \u00a0In which of these three worlds has the twentieth century progressed? \u00a0Could it be the moral world?<\/span><\/div>\n
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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. \u00a0The Stoics advised mankind not to expect anything from the future. \u00a0Even 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.<\/span><\/div>\n
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What else but pessimism could one expect from an Athens that was no longer free? \u00a0Similar desperation echoes throughout the history of Rome and classical Latin literature. \u00a0Lucretius said: \u201cMankind progresses step by step.\u201d However, when he was asked whether our progress was an illusion, he would answer, \u201cYes, nothing ever changes.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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But this was centuries ago. \u00a0If he lived among us now, what would he say about our present civilization? \u00a0He would assuredly be impressed by our advances and the many devices invented to instantaneously satisfy our every whim and desire. \u00a0Nevertheless, 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. \u00a0Perhaps, 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, \u201cThe difference lies in the means, not in the intent, since killing husbands is an ancient pursuit. \u00a0What if all our progress were nothing but an improvement in our methods, not in our purposes?<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u00a0 By Lida Prypchan \u00a0 The inventor of the shuttle contributed more to humanity than whoever conceived of innate ideas. \u00a0(Voltaire) \u00a0 Progress is the unfolding of civilization. \u00a0It is the progression of concepts that foster development, concepts that combat everything that is the very opposite of progress: barbarism, lack of culture, decadence. \u00a0Progress is … <\/p>\n

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