If I didn’t mention that, it’s because I don’t believe it. Human culture sometimes gets better, sometimes gets worse. Depends where you are. In some places life is much much worse than it was just 10 years ago. In others, it’s better. At any rate, it would be hard to tell someone in the dark ages that humanity is always getting better. It usually isn’t.

We tend to think it’s always improving because, where we live, it has been for the very brief period of a couple hundred years.

A progression to the better is hardly a forgone conclusion. I would argue that it’s always much easier for a successful society to fail than it is for a successful society to be built.

Rock on Ryan.

I’d like to add that your analysis of the progression of things seems quite astute, I notice is leaves out note of how the progression of attitudes over the years has only ever resulted in a more powerful, more expanded, more evolved humanity. Even if humanity dallies in object fetishism or disposable culture or corporate controlled internet or some new paradigm as-yet-unheard-of, in my observation, these phases lead to a deeper understanding of life on the whole.