Is human condition necessarily improving? Can rationality have positive effects on well-being and freedom? Are sciences leading humanity toward a brighter future? Is progress driven by social conflict? What is the psychological source of changes? Well, the idea of progress is one of the most brilliant illusions created by mankind, born to justify a global optimism. The page aspires to define shortly the notion of progress, and to provoke your reflections about the validity of it.
The idea of progress is a fruit of the Age of Enlightenment. In brief, it is a kind of accumulation, inevitable, linear, and global, depending on increased understanding. When rationality gifts mankind with new understanding, there’s an increase in knowledge and culture, that, in theory, is an achievement able to stimulate a growth of well-being, and a reinforcement of freedom. The best example of the described process is represented by scientific discoveries, and subsequent technological applications. For that, according to Rationalism, history is a tendency toward freedom. The notion of the above has an implicit religious root, which is the completion of a hidden plan of Mother Nature, or other transcendent Entity. In effect, progress requires a path, with a starting point and an arrival, although the cited path is rather undefined, and largely unknowable.
Modern philosophers have criticized the described notion. Some examples. According to Karl Marx, progress is bound to political struggles, and is driven by social conflict. According to Immanuel Kant, the source of human changes is a tension within human nature itself. Postmodernism is skeptic about pluralism, inevitability, and underlines the effects of human errors. Other thinkers have seen the necessity of a background of political security, and the absence of evidences in the matter of continuous improvements in human condition. Honestly, innate social norms and predestination might seem topics more suitable to religion, than to coherent rationalist visions. I also disagree that evil is never permanent. On the contrary, in my opinion, there’s only a sure factor that might justify the existence of history, and it is the permanence of evil, because evil can have an objective content, equal to any kind of disrespect for human nature. More, no man is a winner, because we all are destined to lose our battle against the Death, which is the end of any progress.
In conclusion, you don’t own any absolute truth, and, for that, you’d better set your mind on conventional truths. Given that the idea of progress has had favorable effects, you might insert it among those conventional truths. As said in previous pages, my notion of “conventional truth” is something with enough of consent, and enough of positive effects, or applications. Naturally, the mix of the page is about progress, as seen by pop and rock artists.
File name is “life as a work in progress, by Max Look DJ (Sept 2024)”, about 1 hour and 24’ of danceable songs about progress.
Human advances, the playlist:
Mary J. Blige – work in progress (growing pain, 2007)
Yellow Magic Orchestra – rescue (2008)
Descent of the Archangel – progressive deception (2019)
Jello Biafra with D.O.A. – that’s progress (1989)
Lil Makaveli – progress (2023)
Sick Century – natural selection (2024)
Nik Kershaw – progress (1984)
Miller Anderson – the age of progress (1971)
Bob Dylan – the times they are a-changin’ (1964)
Johnny Clegg & Savuka – inevitable consequence of progress (1993)
Yellowman & the Paragons – yello a the best (1995)
Nas – I can (2002)
David and the BookBuilders – measures of progress (developing progress measures, 2024)
Brooklyn Dreams – street man (12”, 1978)
Savage Progress – my soul unwraps tonight (extended mix, 1984)
St. Vincent – digital witness (2014)
Howard Jones – things can only get better (extended mix, 1985)
2 Pac feat. Talent – changes (1998)
Goo Goo Dolls – better days (2006)
Donald Fagen – I.G.Y. (what a beautiful world, 1982)
KT Tunstall – synapse (2022)
Sheryl Crow – a change would do you good (1996)
