Progress: The Great Lie That Is Destroying Us All

Imagine chasing a shiny dream that promises endless riches, bigger houses, faster cars. You run after it, day and night, trampling everything in your path—forests, rivers, even your own peace. That's “progress” for you. Not the real kind, but the fake story we have all swallowed. Samuel Miller McDonald nails it in his eye-opening book, Progress: A History of Humanity's Worst Idea. He calls it a deadly myth cooked up by the powerful to grab more, while the rest of us pay the price. And you know what? He is spot on. We have traded our souls for stuff, forgetting the real progress which is growing inside, sharing this Earth with animals, trees, mountains, and seas.

Ancient times in Mesopotamia, kings spun tales of gods rewarding the obedient with paradise after death. Suffer now, they said, and progress awaits in the afterlife. It kept people working like machines, building empires on stolen land and broken backs. Fast-forward to the Enlightenment. Thinkers preached freedom and reason, but it was a cover for grabbing continents, enslaving millions, and calling it “civilizing the world.” Today, it is capitalism's turn with endless growth, sky-high GDP, tech gadgets galore. We cheer billionaires landing rockets on Mars as progress, blind to the smoke-choked skies and dying oceans back home.

McDonald breaks it down simply. True human societies once lived like mutual friends with nature by sharing, balancing, thriving for thousands of years without wrecking the planet. Hunter-gatherers and early tribes took only what they needed, gave back to the soil, danced with the rhythms of rivers and rains. Egalitarian, loving life, in tune with every leaf and bird. That is mutualism—give and take, like bees and flowers.

But “progress” flipped the script to parasitism. Civilizations act like ticks on a dog's back, sucking energy dry. We chop forests for malls, poison soils for cheap food, drill oceans for black gold. Elites sell the dream by urging us to work hard, climb the ladder, and promise that you will be “successful.” Whoever piles up the most cash or cars gets the crown. We push this poison to our kids by forcing them to study hard, get that job, buy that house. Generations chase the mirage, hearts empty, Earth bleeding.

Why does this lie stick? Because it hides the ugly truth. Progress masks genocide, slavery, ecocide. Colonial powers “progressed” by wiping out natives and their ways. Factories “progressed” on child labor and sweatshops. Now, algorithms “progress” us into isolation, scrolling endlessly while real

connections fade. We have forgotten: Earth is not a gas station for our greed. It is home to all humans, elephants stomping through grasslands, fish darting in coral reefs, ancient mountains standing silent witness.

Your own words cut deep In progress's name, we obsess over material junk. The rich flaunt yachts and jets as success badges. We clap for them, then wonder why we are stressed, sick, and alone. We have ditched inner growth— the quiet strength to face fears, the wisdom to love deeply, the spark of kindness that lights up lives. Real progress? It is taming your anger, lifting a neighbor, planting a tree that shades generations. It is understanding we are threads in a vast web where you pull one, and the whole tapestry unravels.

McDonald shows how this myth evolves but never dies. Religions promised heavenly progress. Liberals dressed theft in rights-talk. Now neoliberals twist reforms—greenwashing oil rigs, co-opting protests—while GDP trumps everything. Rights? Nature's voice? Crushed under profit's boot. Civilizations built on this parasitism all crash it is only a matter of time and we will also perish unless we wake up.

So, what is the fix? Ditch the dream. Reject transhumanism's robot fantasies and billionaire space escapes and understand that they are just elites fleeing their mess. Embrace and Honour indigenous wisdom since they have stewarded Earth for millennia without the madness. Fight class divides, not with hate, but fairness, biophilia (love for life), and restraint—enough is enough.

This is not hippie talk. It is survival. Ditch “progress” as our goal. Focus on inner growth instead. Teach kids to meditate in chaos, cherish silence over screens, share meals under stars. Imagine villages with full bellies, laughing kids, clean streams. Cities with rooftop gardens, not skyscrapers blocking the sun. Leaders judged by healed soil, not stock prices. We have gone backward and called it forward. Rivers drown in our “convenient” plastic. Kids chase likes, not dreams. Elders rot alone in fancy nursing homes. But we can turn it around. Start today: plant a seed. Talk to your family about true wealth— hearts linked, not fat wallets. Vote for Earth-first leaders. Live simply so others can simply live.

McDonald's book is a thunderclap, but you are the storm. We have all been duped, but the spell breaks when we see it. Progress is not more but it is

better, together, in harmony. Chase that, and Earth breathes easy. Ignore it, and we are the downfall story kids will mock saying that the fools who had it all and lost everything.

Wake up. Choose mutualism over parasitism. Inner light over outer glitter. This planet pulses for all—us, ants, oceans, oaks. Honour that, or call your “progress” what it is “regress in disguise”.

Author is a Judge at High Court Madras. Views are personal.