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Confusing change with progress


In a previous piece I encourage people to question their beliefs. I asked the question: Why do people follow/subscribe to popular thoughts and ideas?

It is a question that probably has several answers rather than one, but high on that list for me is the propensity people have for confusing change with progress.

Progressive is a label that many aspire too. It just seems so smart, doesn’t it? Modern and post-modern societies generally regard all the changes from the pre-modern area (like the beliefs listed above) as ‘progressive’. I wonder if most of the changes aren’t merely changes rather than progress?

People don’t understand progress.

A lighthouse can be progressive. Most people would see a lighthouse as something static, never-changing and therefore incapable of making ‘progress’. But every time the blinking lighthouse helps ships navigate and steer clear of the rocks, it progressively saves lives.

It is its very static, unchanging nature that allows it to do the job and make a cumulative (progressive) difference. If the lighthouse in fact moved location or occasionally determined not to blink as scheduled, it will cost lives and we become less safe. That shouldn’t be anyone’s idea of progress.

All change is not progress and all progress is not change.

The dictionary does not mention ‘change’, but rather makes it clear that progress is development towards an improved or more advanced condition. And often, having an eternal, unchanging condition/ perspective is more helpful than one that is fluid and ever-changing.

So, don’t dismiss everything that is old as primitive, and don’t disregard every classical perspective as archaic because every change is not an advancement.
 
(Img: naldzgraphics.net)
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