"Regressing" would evidently involve a breakdown in civilization. This has happened on a local basis, but to date has not occurred on a species-wide ("humanity") scale.
The deeper question about progress, is the question that the philosophers of the Enlightenment wrestled with: Can we perfect human behavior, or even, re-engineer human nature?
In many salient ways natural history is cyclical: revolutions, rotations, the life cycle, circadian rhythms. Maybe the Pessimists are right, and time at its most fundamental is cyclical. This would make "progress" nothing but vanity and a chase after wind. Perhaps the effort to perfect human life is the height of vanity. But it looks like we are not going to take our elders' word for it. We are going to test the hypothesis.
“There is a Kabbalistic idea of the world that is a hybrid of the notions of progress and eternal return. Unlike a closed circle, the shape would be more like a cylinder—spiraling around but ever upward—always returning to the same conceptual time and space but always on a higher level. This conception is never stagnant and allows no room for the cynicism and sad resignation of a world that will never change. There is always a goal, and always motion toward it. Every setback is a lesson and an opportunity—one step back and two steps forward.”
"Regressing" would evidently involve a breakdown in civilization. This has happened on a local basis, but to date has not occurred on a species-wide ("humanity") scale.
The deeper question about progress, is the question that the philosophers of the Enlightenment wrestled with: Can we perfect human behavior, or even, re-engineer human nature?
In many salient ways natural history is cyclical: revolutions, rotations, the life cycle, circadian rhythms. Maybe the Pessimists are right, and time at its most fundamental is cyclical. This would make "progress" nothing but vanity and a chase after wind. Perhaps the effort to perfect human life is the height of vanity. But it looks like we are not going to take our elders' word for it. We are going to test the hypothesis.
Wonderful piece, Rabbi!
Love this paragraph:
“There is a Kabbalistic idea of the world that is a hybrid of the notions of progress and eternal return. Unlike a closed circle, the shape would be more like a cylinder—spiraling around but ever upward—always returning to the same conceptual time and space but always on a higher level. This conception is never stagnant and allows no room for the cynicism and sad resignation of a world that will never change. There is always a goal, and always motion toward it. Every setback is a lesson and an opportunity—one step back and two steps forward.”