June 18th, 2008
The Progress Paradox
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It is easy to romanticize the ideal of the noble savage, or argue that the hunter-gatherer Yanamamo tribe is happier, morally superior, or more in tune with their environment than the rest of us. It is equally easy to forget that we are only carrying forward a 10,000 year long tradition of nostalgia for the simple life. Roger Sandall, author of ‘The Culture Cult: Designer Tribalism and Other Essays‘, call it the ‘progress paradox‘ –
Life gets better, but people feel worse… people have been complaining about progress, and looking nostalgically back at the past, for as long as there’s been a past to look back at… the progress paradox has been with us for thousands of years.
One of its most striking sentimental manifestations is a widespread admiration for the tribal world. Anyone who thinks this began with Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 18th century is deeply mistaken… there were numerous other thinkers from 2000 years ago who admired the simple life. And none of them liked stuff.
