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One intellectual vice we acquired since the middle ages is a fanatical belief in 'progress'. It got progressively worse, by the 18th century it got to be a rea
by B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
One intellectual vice we acquired since the middle ages is a fanatical belief in 'progress'.
It got progressively worse, by the 18th century it got to be a reason for killing people, something that in the 20th was done to tens of millions.
And the funny bit is that the theorists behind the mass murders had stated that "historical progress" was inevitable anyways. Blood sacrifices to hurry up the tide, how quaint ...
- Veen 9y agoThe left and the techno-obsessed have a fanatical belief in progress. The right is more aware of the fragility of human nature and human institutions. But both groups make their beliefs into reasons for killing people. The left kills people it thinks stand in the way of progress towards utopia. The right kills people it thinks threaten the purity or safety of what has already been built.
- hawski 9y agoSo: left kills right, right kills left.
- Fricken 9y agoIt's not a partisan. The House of Representatives was unanimous in passing the Self Drive act, which proposes sweeping and permissive regulation to empower the development and deployment of autonomous vehicles. It's like the only thing everybody in Washington agrees on. Conversely, there are plenty of anti-technology people on the left. I follow Urban planning, there are strong advocates for more traditional forms of transportation such as cycling and trains, and those are generally regarded to be left of centre views. Environmentalism is a deeply conservative movement, but in the twisted times we live in, those people for some reason fall left of centre.
- Veen 9y agoYeah, when I first wrote this, I used "conservative" instead of "right", because most of the right aren't conservatives: they're market fundamentalists or religious zealots - neither of which puts conservation of the good at the top of their list of values, regardless of their rhetoric. And yes, many on the left aren't interested in freedom at all: they're intensely authoritarian, which is no surprise when "equality" is the highest good in your value system. And plenty of people from all parts of the political spectrum are simply exploiting the intuitions of their "tribe" for status advantages.
- Tasboo 9y agoWhy did you pick the the middle ages? Couldn't you go back to any period in recorded human history and find that your idea true? When has there not been the idea of 'my idea better, you all believe now or die now'. Why tie it to some modern construct of progress?
- B1FF_PSUVM 9y agoIf you read for instance Montaigne, they were debating the merits of the ancients and the moderns. Up to the 16th century there was a pervading sense of inferiority from a previous classical golden age. The very idea of historical progress is a modern construct.