On Progress - Essay

In every school they teach that we live in the age of progress. And this belief in progress is the official ideology in all so-called
civilized countries. The word "progress" is happily used by virtually everyone talking about anything on TV. It becomes a
synonym of the best, noble, important, extraordinary, worthwhile, something that should be striven for. Even a producer of
toothpaste convinces us that his product is "just a little bit ahead in progress". And I think this word is gradually losing its
meaning.
Well, the notion of progress includes the concept of a goal, or at least a direction. If the goal or direction is not specified, talking
about progress makes no sense. I don't recall anybody specifying the goal before talking about progress in something. It seems
like the goal is known to everybody and talking about the goal is a waste of time. It gets worse when somebody gives a speech
about something in general, for example, about civilization, humankind or future. In this case, one can talk about nothing for
hours on end, and the fellow citizens are happy because each of them defines the goal of the progress in his own way and sees
in the speech what he wishes to see.

If we define progress as acceleration in science and technology, the most progressive countries are those from the top 10
industrial list. If progress meant getting closer to God, the avant-garde would consists of countries like Iran. Some time ago, the
most progressive country on the Planet was Soviet Russia (at least they called themselves so) because they eliminated profit
oriented economy together with the opponents.
Similar considerations apply to the word "development". In areas where they have TV, it means development in technology etc.
and is measured by the level of production and consumption of rockets, cookies and pianos. In other areas it may mean
something different dependent upon the values accepted by the people. I would venture to say that...