Title: John Gray: Is Human Progress an Illusion?
Headings: John Gray: Is Human Progress an Illusion?
John Gray: Is Human Progress an Illusion?
Content: Science increases human power — and magnifies the flaws in human nature. It enables us to live longer and have higher living standards than in the past. At the same time it allows us to wreak destruction — on each other and the Earth — on a larger scale than ever before. The idea of progress rests on the belief that the growth of knowledge and the advance of the species go together —if not now, then in the long run. The biblical myth of the Fall of Man contains the forbidden truth. Knowledge does not make us free. It leaves us as we have always been, prey to every kind of folly. The same truth is found in Greek myth. The punishment of Prometheus, chained to a rock for stealing fire from the gods, was not unjust. Gray has a fairly heretical view of technology itself, pointing out that no one really controls its development or use;