Why We Got the Idea of Progress So Terribly Wrong?

Taking a leap forward shouldn’t be seen as a good thing if it brings us closer to annihilation

Katie Jgln
The Noösphere

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Image licensed from Shutterstock

Imagine you’ve spent your entire life in a house surrounded by acres of lush garden, nurturing it and relying on its resources for sustenance and joy.

But then, one day, you shift your focus to get greater yields. With time, you also start exchanging your surplus with people passing by your property for goods or services. At first, the garden still gives, but its richness begins to fade over time. You’re too busy and happy with how well things seem to be going — after all, you manage to produce more and more, and there’s no shortage of people interested in the fruits of your labour — to notice this, though.

Eventually, the changes become impossible to ignore. Flowers stop blooming, the soil turns to dust, and the animals that once thrived there disappear. The garden’s balance and abundance are gone, and you might never be able to bring it back to its former glory. You might not even be able to produce enough to sustain just yourself.

It’s perhaps quite easy to see where you went wrong in this scenario: you were so caught up with your short-term progress that you overlooked its impact on the ecosystem that keeps you afloat.

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