Is progress a myth?

>>1190290
Without progress we can't work towards a conclusion.

Not all change is change for the better.

>>1190290

Yes. At least a cultural mindset.

>>1190290
See the Whig Theory of History.

Why Hank Shrader is in the picture ?

Yes, even the postmodernists reject the notion of any kind of narrative like progression.

>>1190375

It's Bruce Willis though

The use of fossil fuels and advanced technology is a spike in human history only possible because of the Western ambition to dominate the globe and everything in it. Liberalism and "leftism" in general is a result of the Reformation and Christian theology. It's because of Christianity we are where we are today, not because of an eternal drive towards the perfect civilization. The end comes when the world runs out of oil and the petrodollar collapses.

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Hey look OP your guy got reincarnated

Why does Mussolini look so sad?

No it's not. But it's not a straight, flat road, and everyone isn't in the same car.

>>1190424
Please, electric cars are within a few years of being as cost-effectivene petroleum cars, and we have a plethora of alternative power sources that can provide power. No they're not cheap, but military industrial complex size spending on energy conversion is better than military industrial complex size spending on military. If everything goes to shit it'll be because of conflict with China or some other growing power, not a war in the middle east. Then again, depending on how soon that war is, oil could be a very contested resource.

As for the thread's topic, saying humanity hasn't made progress seems contradictory to common sense. Sure you can make a philosophical argument debating the exact merits of progress, but the most basic way to interpret the word is improvement. The Greeks don't institutionally sexually abuse students, the population of Europe isn't being devastated by plague, less Chinese are being raped by Mongolians, etc. Yes we have brought up new problems such as global warming and overpopulation, but we also are continuously growing in understanding and are working towards conclusions. I'd rather live in the modern day over any time in the past, and I call that improvement.

>>1190290
They're minerals, Marie, Jesus Christ.

Yes. It's a secular version of eschatology. The idea that history is moving towards some kind of end state has been debunked again and again.

>>1190375
>>1190398
>>1190511
>>1190517
>>1190572
What a quality board.

Hegel.

Well, Post-Structuralism has done its best to wreck the idea of progress altogether, but it still sticks for some reason.
I would suppose that it works well in tandem with the idea of economic progress that is so deeply rooted in our capitalist system (as in: capitalism and investment into a country leads to a long process of progress into a developed economy)
But even that is doubtful, if you ask most people from IPE for example

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>>1190375
>>1190572

>>1190811
Well, maximisation of the value form's reproduction is very different to "progress." One is entirely amoral, the other fundamentally posited on a moral basis.

>>1190818
Sure, I agree.
I was claiming that from the standpoint of contemporary philosophy, no such thing as "progress" exists.
Yet, the idea still seems to be popular.

>>1190290

There's material progress

Growth and efficiency

We're just along for the ride - for now

>>1190823
Popular ideology, Popular receptions of scholarly ideology, and Scholarly ideology all differ.

>>1190587
This is the correct answer.

Without a metaphysical end goal, there can be no talk of progress or regress, or going sideways, upwards, in the diagonal or moving in circles. There is just change and ideological interpretations of what change means. Every progressive political ideology is secularized metaphysics.