Why Is Human Progress So Slow?

Posted: 6/29/2018 Updated: 7/1/2018

A Very Focused Reflection On My Life

I am now living in my fifth decade on this planet, but in hindsight it is my impression and experience that human progress is extremely slow. Why? Have you ever wondered?

A Very Brief Look Back In History

The great Renaissance and its humanism is now more than 600 years behind us.

The Age of Enlightenment is now about 250 years old, but human progress is still extremely slow.
The truly amazing Golden Age of Philosophy in Greece, India, and China (Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and others; Buddhism, Ashoka, Chandragupta and others; Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, Mozi and others) happened about about 300-500 years BC and human progress is still extremely slow!

Western countries are doing particularly worse compared to other countries. My focus here will be mainly on Western countries.

Human Progress Defined

Ideals of human progress:

1. More individual liberty
2. More individual self reliance
3. More individual responsibility for oneself and other humans, animals, plants, and nature
4. To Live By The Golden Rule
5. Charity and tolerance towards other living creatures

Reality Shock

We still live in an age where:
Collectivism largely dominates or even represses human progress
Central governments dominate local and regional governments
Considerable ignorance, prejudice, and superstition are bliss for way too many contemporary humans
Too many individuals are unwilling to learn from history or reduce their ignorance
Too many individuals have way too much faith in the salvation by big government
Physical violence and grossly uncivilized behavior (incivility) is still a major influence on our daily lives. Mob violence or intimidation is still encouraged instead of universally condemned and punished

Is civilization indeed still only a thin veneer?
To what extent is Thomas Hobbes Leviathan still relevant in our time?
Why is the Pretense of Knowledge (Friedrich Hayek) still so widely prevalent among our contemporaries?
Why is it still so difficult to correct or check the arrogance of power?

Major Causes

1. Misguided and presumptuous elites rule
2. Big government usurped, standardized, and monopolized the education of our children about 160 years ago
3. Big government usurped and monopolized money
4. Big government grows and expands incessantly without necessary and sufficient checks and balances
5. Incompetent, elitist career politicians impose an ever larger welfare state and ever more laws and regulations on the rest of the common man and woman

One Important Lesson Of History

“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it” (George Santayana)

It is very long past high time to privatize the education of our children so that they may finally have a better chance to learn a much less distorted history of humanity!

Our elected representatives (often incompetent, lifelong career politicians) would not get away with many of their absurd policies if the citizens were better educated and willing to assume responsibility in public office!

Diversity Demagoguery

Posted: 6/21/2018  Revised: 12/28/2018

Modern Racism

The diversity and inclusion ideology is an enormous oxymoron. It is dangerous Orwellian newspeak! It represents the opposite of its declared intentions, i.e. people are actually identified by their religion, skin color, gender or sexual preferences etc. although its proponents claim the opposite is true. Conspicuously, plurality of opinion is not part of the diversity ideology.

Proponents of diversity do discriminate quite obviously, e.g. against white colored people or males or Asians etc. in contravention to their claims of tolerance or inclusion etc.

An Appalling Ideology

Like many other totalitarian ideologies or doctrines, their proponents also assert moral superiority. It forces people to accept diversity as the ultimate truth or goal. Non believers are ostracized or intimidated.

Worst of all, too many institutions of higher education (academia) in the West are complicit in this demagoguery corrupting the minds of young people.

It is very regrettable that in the 18th year of the 21st century, humanity still has to suffer from such medieval, crude, and primitive ideologies!

Frederick Douglas, George Washington Carver, Booker T Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. and others sure would be very disappointed were they still alive.

On Lark Ascending

Posted: 6/20/2018

In my endeavors into classical music, I have come across the beautiful The Lark Ascending by composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Not long ago, I saw a documentary about Francis of Assisi and I was stunned to learn that it was reported that larks gathered and ascended at Francis of Assisi’s death. It appears that this saint, during his lifetime, was very fond of larks and other birds.

Then I learnt that the author of the eponymous poem, i.e. George Meredith, attended a very special school, i.e. a Moravian School in Neuwied, Germany, where he remained for two years. One may speculate that Meredith could have learnt about the larks attending to Francis of Assisi’s final hours at the Moravian school.

Sources:

1. https://www.franciscanmedia.org/7-key-moments-in-the-life-of-saint-francis/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lark_Ascending
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Meredith
4. https://catholicsaints.info/the-life-and-legends-of-saint-francis-of-assisi-conclusion/

On Scheherazade Or Feminism Is Largely Distortion Of History

Posted: 6/18/2018

Some time ago, I first became aware of this lady referred to as Scheherazade, because Rimsky-Korsakov composed a symphonic suite by the same name (eponymous). Then, I also knew of Sergei Prokofiev’s Fantasia on Scheherazade. Always wondered who is this mysterious woman by the name of Scheherazade … I probably had totally forgotten that the famous story of 1001 Arabian Nights was told from the perspective of this woman.

Very recently, I watched this documentary video: Great Myths and Legends: The Arabian Nights: Medieval Fantasy and Modern Forgery (A Penn Museum lecture series talk). Recommendable, but Prof. Cobb is way too glib. His open disdain for Richard Francis Burton goes way too far.

How is it possible that a woman (Sherazade, the protagonist, in this case of 1,001 Arabian Nights fame, which was possibly created in the 10th or 11th century and whose oral story possibly goes back much further) was able to fool a male king for 1,000 nights by telling him incredible, fascinating stories of mostly everyday life to prevent him from killing/beheading her the next morning as was the king’s law (the king would kill a virgin the next morning)? Not only that, she was actively helped by her sister (not by a male), i.e. Dunyazade.

Kim Jong Un: Courage Or Deception?

Posted: 6/12/2018  Revised/Updated: 5/31/2019

Update Of 5/31/2019

Today, following article appeared in the The Korean Times: 'Kim Jong-un carried out purge after Hanoi summit collapse': report. (5/31/19) Here is the related Reuters News article: North Korea executes envoy to failed U.S. summit -media; White House monitoring (5/30/19)

“North Korea executed Kim Hyok Chol, its special envoy to the United States, and foreign ministry officials who carried out working-level negotiations for the second U.S.-North Korea summit in February, holding them responsible for its collapse …

The North Korean leader is believed to be carrying out a massive purge to divert attention away from internal turmoil and discontent, the newspaper said. …

It is the first time since the December 2013 execution of Jang Song Thaek, Kim Jong Un's uncle ...” (emphasis added)

It still remains an open question whether the dictator of North Korea evolves more like Stalin or like Gorbachev.

We  know from experience with the history of e.g. USSR and People’s Republic of China that purges in totalitarian communist regimes have to be taken quite seriously. They may portend e.g. significant changes or a power consolidation.

Original Post

Now that the historic meeting between the Korean dictator and a U.S. president has taken place, many wonder what will be the outcome of this in the following days, weeks, months, or years? If President Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev are any guide, we should remain optimistic.

If Kim Jong Un is sincere in his efforts to finally to end the Stalinist totalitarian dictatorship in North Korea, he truly is a courageous leader and deserves to be remembered in history despite all his guilt. There are probably many vested interests in North Korea (and probably in Russia and China) that prefer the status quo as it is and these vested interest would do anything in their power not to lose their privileges they have enjoyed for some time. Thus, Kim Jong Un’s life is in jeopardy.

If Kim Jong Un is insincere and/or his allies Russia and China are scheming to upset the West than we wish or will see if President Trump has the clairvoyance to counter that!

From my previous blog posts, the reader will gather that I have supported a reunited Korean peninsula and have speculated over why it has not happened a long time ago (see e.g. here).

The Relation Of The Declaration Of Independence And The Constitution

Posted: 6/9/2018

Today, I was truly shocked at work to find out that two of my bright and brilliant American born and raised colleagues of mostly conservative disposition would argue that these two basic documents of the United States are not closely linked or that one is unrelated of the other.

Was this one of the results of the appalling public education suffered by students of public schooling in the U.S. I seriously fear so!

If an American citizen fails to recognize that the Declaration of Independence contains foundational principles (such as “... We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ….”) that substantially guided the drafting and ratification of the U.S. Constitution then something is terribly wrong!

President Trump And Free Trade

Posted: 6/9/2018

The whole world is wondering aghast what President Trump is up to when he threatens to imposes new or even imposes higher tariffs on the imports from major trading partners or when he attacks or dismisses trade agreements as bad deal like NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) or TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership).

From a free trader’s perspective, like I consider myself to be one, these tariffs threaten to:

1. Harm consumers and businesses in the U.S. and abroad
2. Trigger a spiral of tariff and counter tariff impositions or, worse, even a trade war the like we have not seen in decades

For a long time President Trump has puzzled me with this approach. However, I begin to see some method in this, what appears to many as, madness:

1. A diversionary tactic to e.g. get the Europeans to focus more on economic prosperity and trade instead of radical environmentalism and identity politics
2. To initiate a more honest discussion about managed trade versus free trade, the former of which actually predominated the post World War II era. Perhaps, Trump is intentionally upsetting a much beloved world order of managed trade. But one should not be fooled, some countries took advantage in their own best interest of the likes of GATT (General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade) or its successor WTO (World Trade Organisation), e.g. China.
3. To get the U.S. Congress to finally limit the powers of the president to make unilateral changes to U.S. tariffs. Long overdue perhaps

I keep my fingers crossed that my above speculation is not entirely without warrant!

A Bridge Builder

Posted: 6/9/2018

Today, I learnt from this excellent documentary video on YouTube The Bridges That Built London (History Of London Documentary) | Timeline (Presented by Dan Cruickshank, 2012; IMDb) that the latin word pontifex (maximus, pope) translates into bridge builder. I was stunned for a moment. I do not recall ever having learnt this.

What a great title and program for the leader of the Roman catholic church.