There really does seem to be this pervasive idea that there's a non-stop linear march of progress from the beginning of time, that despite some bumps here and t

There really does seem to be this pervasive idea that there's a non-stop linear march of progress from the beginning of time, that despite some bumps here and there "things always improve over time", and that for any of the big problems humanity is facing that "they'll think of something", without much thought as to who "they" are or what that "something" is, or even about the additional side-effects of what that "something" might entail, which could go on to cause ever greater problems later on (where the same argument is again applied ad infinitum). This seems like a common argument made to avoid the emotionally difficult thoughts about what an individual could do right now to help prevent or even just to mitigate existing problems from becoming worse.