Material Progress. Spiritual Decline.

Progress signals motion. Today the word progress is often used to mean improvement. This makes it difficult to criticize the direction that progressives propose. It looks like arguing against improving the world.

Yet cars progress into trees. Missiles into apartment. Bullets into brains. All progress, but zero improvement. Decay, actually.

To protect yourself from the false faith in progress, it is important to understand what it truly is. Mere motion. The central question should be: are we moving in the right direction?

Material vs. Spiritual

Modernity has given us a lot of material progress. Fridges, TV’s, cars, planes, medical machines and that one cool fridge magnet that your best friend brought you from Texas, as well as a literal titty-magnet with New York on it that doubles as a bottle opener (I swear this is on my fridge, thanks Marc).

In the material sense, progress equals improvement. Things got better. The same isn’t true for the spiritual.

I see parallel processes. Material progress. Spiritual decline. Moreover, we use our material progress for soul-draining or soul-destroying activities.

The internet is filled with lust and greed. The promises of connection have turned into realities of isolation. Online gambling is growing rapidly. Servers are filled with porn. OnlyFans made prostitution scaleable.

Power in the wrong hands

In my recent piece Where is the modern cathedral? I argued that modernity cannot create beauty is because it’s built on vices. It optimizes for greed, lust, laziness etc. (yes it is ironic to use “etc.” after laziness).

In times of material progress, it is incredibly important that new capabilities are guided by Good ideas. Good with a capital G. Not good for the bank account, or good for the views. Morally Good.

For modernity now facilitates moral decay at hyper-speed because material progress is guided by age-old vices.

That’s why I try to bunkerize as best I can. To sever ties with a vice-fueled culture and seek to connect to those ideas that care for the soul.