The myth of progress

We all want to believe in world that turns better and better.
For many beliefs this is central.
Marx believed in progress to better world and was inspired by Hegels thought about the law of a "weltgeist"that insured progress.
Capitalism seem to promise luck if we buy more and more stuff, at least does the advertisement say so.  And we all now the promise of a paradise in religious contexts.


John Gray is a retired professor from London School of Economics and Politic Science and has written a lot of books.
Maybe he can be seen as a pessimist, but he can also be seen as clear eyed.

He is a supporter of the green movement and  Lovelock's idea about Gaia.
In Grays book "Straw Dogs" he claims that humanity probably will destroy itself, but life will go on anyway.
The title of the book is inspired by some words from Lao Tzu: "Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the myriads of creatures as straw dogs."

Gray gives some examples of his view; we thought that torture was a passed phenomena, at least in the "civilized world". But in and after the Iraq war it was used by the US military. 
What he would say about president Trump is quite easy to guess...

Here you can listen to Gray himself;

                                         
Like Yuval Harari he is into the idea that it was a better world when we were hunter-gatherers.
We were probably not less violent then, but we were few and damaged the Earth less.

But in one area there are progress; science. And it will go on, for good or worse.

Science is anyway helpful when it comes to mindfulness. Here's a scientific study from Google scholar that shows that as little as five minutes of meditation in front of a computer can help:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0153923

Gray's thoughts are not so far away from Buddha's: Pain and suffering cannot be avoided. And it may grow faster if you strive too much and cling to things like titles and fame. So cool down.

Another side of Gray; he and his Japanese wife have had four cats; two Burmese and two Birman and his favorite music is this by Mompuo (lovely name):

                         










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