Thoughts on People's overly sense of Human progress vs Technological progress (and other thoughts)

Misconception of Growth

I am not 100& sure what I want to call this, and this is just my first dive at it, it will be better thought out in the future and this small explanation will vanish.

I find that it has been a common thing among us to think that we, our generation, our society is somehow significantly improved from the world as it was 100, 200, 300, etc years ago. We are not. Our technology is better, but I don't think that mankind as a whole has changed nor improved all that much in the last 1000 years.

Go back and think about mankind. See this is where more active research will be needed, all I have now are off hand references without the documented fact to back them up. But look back. How many years ago did we evolve into what you see today as a naked figure? How many years ago did we develop speech? Writing? If you look at humanity in the long view going back to when we were knuckle draggers then this last 1,000 years has been a skipping stone in a lake, we've gone one skip, MAYBE two.

What I mean, and this is hard because the medications are reeking havoc on my ability to stay coherent. People think that we are so progressive because we can now fly, or we can administer medicine, build tall building, computers, cell phones, and so on.

But if you take away the technology, how different are we from the Romans? Or the English Empire in the 1700-1800s? From the early Americans? How different are we from any of these people? If anything we have regressed.

Sure some things have changed, Slavery is mostly dead, but not really, I mean it still exists all over the world, just not in as great force. Color is not as big of an issue as it once was. More people can read and write. Gays are becoming more commonly accepted. Yes, some things are better. But when and where? I mean really?

Black men were free in England and other countries decades before they were in America. Gays were repressed to the same extent they were 50 years ago, it hadn't changed much, it was still illegal in the military - you'd get hanged.

Now you cry out, What is this?! We don't murder in the streets or in the military anymore. But we also don't have a sense of honor nor respect anymore.

Duels were fought over honor for the most part. Now you look at the word honor and maybe you giggle a little bit. Did you know that even as far as the 1800s captured officers, gentleman, were allowed to keep their sword and to roam free about a city, as long as they gave their word as a gentleman that they would not attempt escape? Who now really trusts someone's word?

Ah, but we don't have fighting to the death. But we do have cage matches, on TV with millions of Americans cheering for men who are beating on each other. Do I misunderstand the sport? No, I get it, I actually do, I understand and respect people who put their bodies to that test. But that doesn't change what it is. We have a blood thirst for violence. That has not changed.

Has the situation of the poor changed? Has it really? So many of them in prison, looked down upon in the streets, begging. Have we really progressed? You cry out, We have Shelters! But you know that there have been soup kitchens and poor houses for centuries.

We are still young as anything. We still struggle with gods and prophets. We still have little understanding of what is in the heavens. We still treat people the same, we still fight wars over simple matters.

I challenge anyone to show some form of progress we have made that is not based on technology. Some giant shift in the culture that can not be shown to have existed within the last 1000 years or before. I challenge anyone to show something that shows if you take the technology away we as a people are any different than we were before.


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So here is my other thought. I am bored and I am wasting away.

My friends are scattering, and I have nothing against them for it. But say.. Kyle is almost always in Boston, which at least is close, Brent lives in Conn 5 days a week and works up here the other 2, he is around for another year or so but he has his eyes set on NY or some other meca. Liam is in NH year round, Paul is moving to Salem, Jon spends far more time in Korea than the United States. I think Will will eventually head to California or such.

This is all totally cool, god bless technology (yes I realize the irony), and some are sticking around for ever I think, John and Stevie. Mikey will be around but he's incredibly busy. Chris I think is staying fairly local. I mean I do have friends here.

But what I miss more than anything else is school. Oh ho, I can see Brent scratching his head. But its not the atmosphere, though I do miss classroom antics, no no, its the work. I miss History courses, I miss writing papers, I miss reading books I wouldn't think to read, and hearing views on thins that no one else would think. I miss learning.

So what I think I'm going to do is start reading again, there are a ton of my dad's books around. I will read and I will write about what I am reading or I will explore idea. I will eventually begin writing papers again, though they will probably be put in a drawer. I need to wake my mind back up, I used to be better that this.