Or it could mean that the personal pleasures people take up don't have that much to do with progress. That there is no need to conflate asceticism and virtue. T

Or it could mean that the personal pleasures people take up don't have that much to do with progress. That there is no need to conflate asceticism and virtue. That perhaps progress has more to do with the things we legally bind ourselves to as a society such as equality, solidarity and opportunity. No one here has said there aren't times which are "better" or "worse" than others. Merely that it's not worthwhile to judge that on the dubious metric of decadence.