The Myth of Progress – and the Reality (Part 1)

The concept most strongly associated with our modern world is the idea of progress. Throughout history, not everyone has believed in this notion.

After the French Revolution, conservatives built their position on questioning whether the changes occurring in the world could truly be called progress. Liberals, by contrast, embodied the spirit of the age and became the representatives of the dominant ideology of the 19th-century capitalist global economy. This idea justified the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Through the idea of progress, liberals sought to downplay the negative aspects of capitalism by arguing that its positives outweighed the harms. Surprisingly, the liberals' main ideological opponents—the Marxists—also believed in progress. However, the claim that capitalism as a historical system is more advanced than previous systems is false.

It is often said that scientific and technical progress has reached astonishing levels. Yet no one knows how much knowledge has been lost as a result of the spread of universalist ideology worldwide. It is also claimed that historical capitalism has transformed human physical capabilities and continually improved the efficiency of all human energy resources. However, it remains unclear to what extent this has meant an increase or decrease in humanity's overall energy investment, whether measured in terms of working hours or human lifespans.

Is life truly less burdensome under capitalism than in previous social systems? This is doubtful, as evidenced by the internalized sense of compulsion to work ingrained in our conscience. It is also claimed that no prior social system allowed people to live in such material comfort. Yet we question this, given the disorders, alienation, and mental illnesses we witness today. Furthermore, while capitalism is credited with major improvements in protecting life—consider, for example, its handling of epidemics or violent acts—can this claim hold up under the shadow of a potential nuclear war? Comparing the cruelties of different eras is a difficult task.

In judging material conditions, one might defend a Marxist thesis: the concept of the proletariat's absolute impoverishment. While many industrial workers do indeed live better lives, they constitute only a tiny fraction of the global population. A growing share of the workforce in the global economy resides in agricultural zones or migrates to urban slums, where their conditions are much worse than those of their ancestors 500 years ago. They are less well-nourished, and their diets are far more imbalanced. Infant mortality remains high among these populations. They work longer hours—daily, annually, and over their lifetimes—earning lower incomes. Exploitation has increased.

The emergence of capitalism led to the disappearance of small communities, often replaced for extended periods by plantations operating under authoritarian control. These provided individuals with little autonomy. The state eventually took over these roles but was equally unwilling to delegate local decision-making power to direct producers. Bargaining positions worsened, as did incentives to engage in work.

Additionally, capitalism subjected society to ideological constraints that were both oppressive and degrading, constraints that had no prior equivalent. Today, these are known as sexism and racism. Sexism relegated women to unproductive spheres of work, even though productive labor is the foundation of privileges. It was impossible to escape these constraints. Racism, meanwhile, did not manifest merely in the oppression of foreigners; it sought to retain oppressed groups within the system itself. It provided justification for low wages, portraying the least compensated labor as requiring the least skill.

The structuring of the labor force based on sexism and racism proved resistant to change. Consequently, the proletariat's impoverishment unfolded on both psychological and material levels. This resulted in a growing disparity between the surplus product consumed by the most privileged 10-15% of the world's population and the goods consumed by the remaining majority within the global economy.

Immanuel Wallerstein " A haladás mítosza- és a valóság" Mozgó világ 1990/9