> ... we’ve always moved in a progressive direction. Sure it sometimes takes a few life times, but we’ve never moved permanently backwards before, so it would be rather strange if we started doing that now.
I suppose it depends on what you mean by "we" here. There are plenty of societies that moved permanently backwards, and are currently quite far behind where they previously were. Iran is a regressive theocracy and used to be a very modern country. China had a beautiful intellectual culture that contributed immensely to the world and is currently a genocidal despotocracy. Egypt was the intellectual capitol of the known world. In the middle east, there were generations of people who thought that the ruins of the civilizations that came before them must have been made by gods because they couldn't fathom them being created by humans.
Civilizations backslide, and die, regularly throughout history.
Now, if you mean "we" as in humanity as a whole, it's a tougher question. I do agree that humanity as a whole makes progress forward on a long enough timelines, but there were still many stumbling blocks along the way.
I suppose it depends on what you mean by "we" here. There are plenty of societies that moved permanently backwards, and are currently quite far behind where they previously were. Iran is a regressive theocracy and used to be a very modern country. China had a beautiful intellectual culture that contributed immensely to the world and is currently a genocidal despotocracy. Egypt was the intellectual capitol of the known world. In the middle east, there were generations of people who thought that the ruins of the civilizations that came before them must have been made by gods because they couldn't fathom them being created by humans.
Civilizations backslide, and die, regularly throughout history.
Now, if you mean "we" as in humanity as a whole, it's a tougher question. I do agree that humanity as a whole makes progress forward on a long enough timelines, but there were still many stumbling blocks along the way.