Reassessing Standards of Progress
There are many supposed ways that the world of 2021AD (no, I shall not use CE) is more advanced than the year 21AD; today a same sex couple is able to get married, systematic racism is starting to be addressed, and women have the right to vote. Conservatives will likely respond differently, listing literacy rates, technological advancements, and a universal standardized education as measurements of progress. From the Traditionalist perspective, 2021 is considerably less advanced than the year 21AD as we are considerably closer to an Iron Age (or Kali Yuga), if not already in one, than was the inhabitants of 21AD. The doctrine of cycles will be explored at a later date, but to give a glimpse into why the current age is either an Iron Age or coming close to it, the following quote from Hesiod’s Works and Days may prove helpful:
“The father will not agree with his children, nor the children with their father, nor guest with his host, nor comrade with comrade; nor will brother be dear to brother as aforetime. Men will dishonour their parents as they grow quickly old, and will carp at them, chiding them with bitter words, hard-hearted they, not knowing the fear of the gods. They will not repay their aged parents the cost their nurture, for might shall be their right: and one man will sack another's city. There will be no favour for the man who keeps his oath or for the just or for the good; but rather men will praise the evil-doer and his violent dealing. Strength will be right and reverence will cease to be; and the wicked will hurt the worthy man, speaking false words against him, and will swear an oath upon them. Envy, foul-mouthed, delighting in evil, with scowling face, will go along with wretched men one and all.”1
“Fair enough”, the modern might say, “but do you not recognize the technological progress? What about literacy rates? And is universal standardized education not an advancement?” To these common standards of progress we shall attend.
Technology
Of the common standards of progress, technological advancement is the most often cited. Cars, computers and manufacturing are surely good things, yes? Even if the answer is an unqualified “yes”, the presence of these technologies does not make the current age more advanced than the previous. Every age values certain things above others and directs its energies towards these things. In the Middle Ages, theology, philosophy and law were highly valued and, accordingly, this period was filled with an unrivaled quantity and quality of scholarship. Were the Middle Ages less advanced than the year 2021? Not if you compare the scholarship of 2021 to the medieval university…they have us beat by a long shot. Yes, we have the iPhone and the textile mill, but they had Boethius, Thomas Aquinas, Dante, and Emperor Justinian. What distinguishes the current age from the Middle Ages is not a matter of progress, but that we value material goods over contemplative goods, while the Middle Ages valued contemplative goods over material goods. The presence of advanced technology, if we accept that manufacturing plants are in fact an improvement to the artisan guilds of yesteryear, says nothing about how much a civilization progressed; it only says what a civilization values and what they spend their resources cultivating.
Literacy Rates
Considering that I am writing this and you are currently reading, it is clear that we both value literacy. Do we value literacy for its own sake, however? Is literacy a good thing if the only written word available praises cowardice, infidelity and hatred? As eating is only profitable if there is nutritious food available, literacy is only good if there is writing of substance available. There is always, given the internet and sites like Library Genesis (libgen.rs), good writing available, so literacy is a good thing…right? Before answering this question, ask yourself why it is that whenever a communist regime comes to power there is always an aggressive effort to raise literacy rates. It may be that communists are good people who just want to help their neighbor. Or, it could be that the peasantry can be propagandized easier if they can read the Party run newspaper. A literate populace is easier to manipulate because they believe themselves to be independent thinkers when they read CNN, browse Twitter, or click on a Substack post, but they are actually reading carefully curated propaganda. So while literacy can be a good thing, the mere presence of a literate populace says nothing about how advanced an age is. In fact, a literate populace may be less intelligent than an illiterate populace if the literate believe that a man can become a woman and that the family unit evolved from male economic domination, while the illiterate believe that gender is real and the family is an institution to be praised. As it turns out, this is exactly the situation we find ourselves in the year 2021.
Education
Whenever something is opened up “for all”, that something typically becomes standardized. Universal, standard, education says “all students will have learned ‘X’ by the time they have graduated high school.” Unaccounted for is the possibility that different students might need different types of education, some needing a more general education, others more specialized, some a more academic education, others a trade based schooling. It may seem progressive to have all students learn the same things at the same time, after all, it looks nice on a spread sheet and is presentable to school boards and educational departments, but it is a denial of human difference and the needed for a differentiated education, an education that addresses the strengths and weaknesses of all students. Ancient and medieval educators knew this, but their knowledge has been ignored because it presents an anthropology where humans have different capacities and, thus, is taken by moderns to be a denial of equality. Troubling though it is, giving an equal education to everyone serves the needs of no one because no student is exactly alike and has the same needs.
Reassessing Standards of Progress
Looking at three common standards of progress and why they do not, in fact, tell us anything about how advanced an age is, we must either conclude that there are no standards of progress or that there are alternative standards that need exploration. One alternative standard is a perfectionist account of moral progress, an account that states that there exists a perfect goodness, called The Good by Plato, which embodies perfect justice, perfect courage, perfect love, perfect moderation, perfect wisdom, etc. that we are ever striving to imitate. For Christians, The Good is another name for God, for Plato The Good is a mysterious being beyond being, and for atheist Platonists, like Iris Murdoch, The Good exists in the same way a mathematical limit exists, something you can always approach but never reach. Progress, on a perfectionist account, is progress a person, or society, makes towards The Good. There may be other alternative standards of progress, and perhaps better ones than the perfectionist account, but technological advancement, literacy rates, and universal standard education cannot be plausible standards.