ok so i’ve heard at least 2 different definitions of progress.
- one strictly defines progress as technological progress. the reasoning is that “progress” comes from latin “pro-gress” (marching forward) which refers to any labor process feeling very similar to a long march. exhausting.
- another nice angle i’ve heard was that “progress” is a play-on-words with progesterone which is a substance produced by biological women to advance various internal processes, as such it is understood as “what women do” or as women’s movement. it’s silly but i’ve heard it and now so have you.
especially, do you think that “progress” properly describes your goals? do you say that progress is what we need as a society? if no, how else would you describe your goals?
Do you have an actual example of people talking about progress before the modern era? AFAIK they didn’t.
Reading skills anyone? I did not say they all talked about progress, I said they all had that attitude.
Okay, an example of that, then.
Hesiod thought every age was worse than the last, and you can find plenty of “kids these days” or “men were better back then” comments throughout the written record. The idea that everything is perfectly cyclical also crops up.
On the other hand, I can’t think of a single example of “the way my parents/ancestors did things was wrong”. The closest is maybe just a neutral observation that fashions change, or regret that a specific innovation isn’t taken up faster. TBF younger authors have to be less likely to be reproduced, but the difference is stark.