Progress?

History unravels itself in mysterious ways, who can explain the arbitrary events of our collective past which brought us to this point. Scholars and futurists forecast the next hundred years for businesses and governments while the universal algorithm eludes are attempts to discover its formula. If there were to be a complex sequence of historical variables such as this, wrapped neatly into an elegant equation, allowing us to decipher what is yet to come, we may find ourselves, scratching our frowning foreheads yet again, questioning the legitimacy of such ridiculous oracles, unable to understand how the perfectly aligned dots of the past go so disarray a few years down the line. The truth may be that there is no universal algorithm revealing the future in any exact form and the dots do connect perfectly so long as we remain ahead of them.

And when we venture past the last dot, we find our common future, branching out in absurd tangents. Can we as people place our faith in any one of these branches? What difference does it really make when there is no one watching our actions in the hour glass? Are we sure of our underlying intentions, when there is no grand purpose pushing us forward? I can awake any morning knowing that my predicament bares some relation to past ideas and motivations. I can…connect the dots in my life, understand how simple experiments in my youth morphed into monstrous habits and wonder if I... am the product of repetition or stimulation. The dots are aligned and yet, I am a stranger to my former self and there is no explanation to why entire years of teenage happiness lie rusting in the annals of my memory while short lived frustrations etch deeper into character. I do not know which part of my history pushes me forward and as time flows, I can only assume that I am replaced with a better version of myself. I can only assume that society is wiser and more sensible today than it was fifty years ago but theories are propounded in the fields of religion, social science and evolution, offering precise explanations for the progression of the dots and it all makes so much sense. Of course there would be computers and countries and democracy and nuclear bombs and the subconscious need to advance our own race. But twenty-thousand slaves built the pyramids and after three millennia…millions are employed in construction sites at minimum wage, half the world is oppressed and hungry and war is still an effective means to advancement, so at least we know for sure that some things DON’T change.   

Our collective problems travel with us, they remind me of certain qualities about myself, I wish to leave behind, introduce Aditya 2.0, new and improved with all the bugs fixed but it doesn’t work for the most part, with me and with everyone else so I can be sure that if society today has not learnt from its history, we should refrain from using the word 'progress’ and the reason is, it is only our nature that remains fairly consistent in an otherwise chaotic chain of events; events which brought us the internet but not flying cars and neither the futurist nor the 50’s science fiction writer could have seen it coming this way.

Future world exists in thoughts and ideas. We all wish to find ourselves inside it, healthy and happy but the problem is; no matter what happens, the dots always line up, making retrospection pointless. But few traits of Future World can be labeled as progress and often times we use the word indifferently to refer to any forward succession of events. It is important to remember that when the meaning of progress is forgotten, so are our motivations to achieve it. Maybe politically correct language isn’t progress if the illness it sugar coats, still prevails. Maybe towns where you can smoke indoors in public places aren’t backwards and maybe eating with your hands is more socially advanced than introducing silverware to a sensual body and its source of energy. We are trendy, not progressive, one of them follows a cycle, and the other does not…so choose your path but know that when you find yourself in a situation, where you have a decent idea of what is to come; it is only because you have been there before...history repeated itself and it will continue to do so, so long as you are content with being a part of the trend.