Are we progressing?
What is progress? Is it economic? Is it political? Or is it psychological and spiritual, and is it ethical to say so? In what way I call it progress may depend on my personal condition, economic and psychological as well. To say so, if I am already average in these positions, then I will call progress beyond these positions. But for the person who does not have food on his plate at dinner or does not have clothes on his body, getting those suddenly will be called progress. For someone who has some ideological beliefs and has never seen the persons suitable to rule and has those persons rule them, they will see that as progress. For the person who sees society as a whole, where people are reactionary in nature, and at large do not have independent, well-studied opinions and do not have good institutions to develop those, then they may find that society undeveloped.
What is your idea of progress? If I try to study the history and traditions of India, I find many examples of artistic monuments and creations that suggest people in earlier times lived rich lives, full of varied colours across all areas. With modernity, I am finding that our creations are becoming more boring, full of dull colours, stories built on muddy ideas, and architecture full of lines, boxes and rectangles rather than colours and curves. This could be my bias, giving more importance to old vintage times. You can disagree with it. People living in my times may agree more. One piece of evidence is that AI is now generating images for creating your personal images in old vintage times, and when the trend starts, it spreads like electricity, and people who are in post-vintage times and born in modern times become enthusiasts and try to put their photos.