Why progress?

It can be argued that progress is a natural way of life. Evolution is a form of progress that governs all forms of life. In order to survive, every life form must be sufficiently equipped to obtain essential nutrients and avoid predation or other dangers. If the species cannot survive to reproductive age, then it simply cannot continue to prosper in future generations. However, after a species has attained a sufficient population growth rate, it is no longer pressed to biologically evolve any further. Since this need is fulfilled, perhaps other forms of progress or evolution become more prioritized in our minds, just as our other needs become more prioritized according to Maslow, a concept which was discussed in the previous post.

Progress can surely take on many different forms and meanings for different people. One can look at progress in spiritual sense, such as the individual striving for self-transcendence; a scientific sense, such as using new technologies to solve problems more efficiently; and of course a social sense, such as attaining new universal liberties, among others. Progress can also be on the individual level as well as the group level. But this idea of progress beyond one's objective need is something that is important to explore for the simple fact that it can be perceived so differently by so many different people.

Among nations, a major form of progress is prosperity in comparison to other nations. For example, currency, industry, and military prowess are examples of ways one nation can assert its superiority over other nations. This concept of competition can be seen as a large driving force for many non-Western nations to industrialize. The capitalist mentality that has been traditionally Western, has spread to countries such as Japan and China, for instance (morningstar.com). Becoming a superpower is an understandable goal, especially since we are still warring peoples, as is evidenced by the current war in Iraq. And every nation should therefore have some sort of means of protecting itself from impositions by other nations. What many may consider progress may therefore be considered evolution or Darwinism in a different sense.

Perhaps when there is total world peace or when a worldview exists that is wholistic rather than from the view of a nation, we can focus on other types of progress, or perhaps the lack thereof. From what has been discussed in this post, it might be fairly concluded that progress differs from evolution in that progress has the potential to be voluntary, whereas evolution cannot. Not driven by a need for survival, motivation for progress, therefore, must come from elsewhere. We have seen how progress can be individualistic or broader reaching. However, progress after meeting one's survival needs must always be voluntary.

References

http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?postId=2695223