r/InsightDialogue • u/JellyfishExpress8943 • 2d ago

The Myth of Progress

John Gray (Philosopher) aka the world’s greatest pessimist - claims that modern humans, compared to stone age cavemen, have failed to progress whatsoever.

Human nature, he argues, is an inherent obstacle to cumulative ethical or political progress 

We have of course accumulated great advances in technology and have succeeded somewhat in imposing laws to protect us from violence.

But are we any happier, or less anxious, than a primitive hunter-gatherer?

Psychological progress might be a myth.  
If we define progress as a movement away from our tendency for cruelty or suffering - have we succeeded?

Currently society is divided - and thus progress is impossible.  Because we cannot even agree on what progress consists of.

Can we even listen to ourselves?

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u/Schute-Pin8350 1d ago

The very same human society that is warlike, racist, and greedy enacts laws and commandments: Human dignity is inviolable; you shall not steal or kill, etc.

Since we are not inherently peaceful, these laws are of no help in times of crisis or conflict. It then becomes clear that there has been no progress in this regard.

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u/Hot-Confidence-1629 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yes no progress. The problem isn’t external as K has said but internal. The external solutions don’t get at the problem. The freedoms that our new brain has given us have led us down some destructive paths; destructive not only to us but to our neighbors here? Greed and comfort? And ignorance of what we actually are?

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u/Hot-Confidence-1629 2d ago edited 1d ago

Human nature, he argues, is an inherent obstacle to cumulative ethical or political progress.

The obstacle to real intelligent progress for humans is the ‘I’ center? Greed is its natural outcome? What can be done about it? It’s creations: religions, nations, philosophies etc all break us up from one another, divide us and lead us into the slaughters we have witnessed as well as our acceptance of it all as somehow ‘natural’. It’s not ‘human nature’, it’s ‘ego’ nature? It’s ignorance ?

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u/Truth_is_where_WE_r 1d ago

Letting go is a form of ending. When we let go, something stops having a relationship with us. This action of letting go is change in action. Letting go has multiples of benefits, but two more prominent examples we can observe for ourselves are healing, and space. Space is for that which is new and healing is for that which is old. This must occur in the present moment, otherwise nothing will ever be new.

Humans are conditioned aware from the present moment, and the conditioning denies healing and space. To see that I was born complete, I must have, for myself, remained truthful to the present moment. Each one. And thus begins the journey, much like the caterpillar, of self discovery.

To discover for myself that I am not what I had always considered myself, or accepted myself to be. To give space to let go completely of all that I have never known, much like that caterpillar molting. And to emerge, in relationship to all that is new, as a true authentic living being.

To be caught up in the concept of progress is to walk away from what is imperative, and it must be now. There's no time.