The Missing Track for Real Progress

At a recent Unitarian Universalist service, we were contemplating our generation’s inability to unify efforts, so that progress and development would be across the board in all levels of our lives in a standard manner, in contrast with the many visions of our youth for a better future, like the futuristic societies depicted by some science fiction movies or activist movements of the sixties and seventies.

One track of our modern society continues generating inconsistent slews of insidious misguided irrational events such as extremist despots taking command of large populations, corrupt officials squandering tax monies, exploitation of children by mafia bands, and violent, almost medieval behavior that continues in total contrast with the second track of society where major advances in research, technology, and science, continue to develop in a positive manner for an improved quality of life, if only the first track were not so dysfunctional and could permit these developments to be more accessible. 

 

As it stands, it does little good to have some parts of the global population receiving quality healthcare, when as soon as they travel outside of their homes they are quickly exposed to a majority of the population that does not. What good does it do to have the latest technology in transportation, when only a minority can afford it, or if it is put to use the roadways are totally inadequate?

What good does it do to have better contraception methods when the poorest populations rarely know how to use them or are able to afford them?
The cause for this huge divide and lag between the development and improvement of political and legal systems resulting in such a disparity of inequality, violence, and chaos for the most vulnerable and underprivileged populations is largely the result of the ever-growing lack of interest by our greatest intellectuals to invest efforts in the development of these areas at the same pace as other areas of learning, and additionally the reluctance to take on leadership roles that may or may not be attractive due to the personal sacrifices in lifestyle involved.  This reluctance of intellectuals to come up with better governmental and legal systems is the immediate cause of an overall lower quality of life for the grand majority, even in spite of the advances made in the other areas.  It is only too obvious that the lifestyle of a “politician” is more than a bit unsavory for the majority of intellectuals, but it might be more enticing if the positions were revamped in some novel way, to be more of a group of volunteers providing guidance than a celebrity icon.

It seems almost unconscionable that we still have not come up with a global modern efficient model of organizing ourselves to ensure and provide people with sustainable lifestyles in a more humane way across the board, although there is always the exception of a few countries that have made good attempts, like Sweden, but why this has not occurred on an academic educational global scale in step with all other areas of knowledge and education is the real failure of our generation’s greatest thinkers to have real progress become a reality.