The True And Only Heaven, Progress And Its Critics

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/27/books/where-has-progress-got-us.html 

The linked is a rather good review. The book pulls together MANY threads on the origins and criticisms of the secular religion of "progress". The fact that our modern conception of progress is "more, more, more ... easier, more pleasurable, more choice, etc. An attempt to even sample the underlying material would be a work of a year or more even for a dedicated rapid reader. 

The main assertion of the book is that "more, more, more" doesn't work because of limits ... specifically environmental limits. Curiously, Malthus, the secular god of limits is never mentioned. 

The book does cover the now increasingly well known fact that the destruction of the family, church, community, etc, even with lots of wealth, entertainment and sexual pleasure is a hollow life that often leads to suicide, or addictions that have the same early death effect. (see numerous rock and other "stars" who follow the creed of "Live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse"). 

Having seen too many young corpses, I can attest that young corpses are not beautiful. I'm not a mortician, so I really do not know why, but my guess is that the old corpse looks much more natural, since the body was getting close to death anyway. For the young, once the radiance of youth is extinguished, the remaining husk is rendered ugly. 

I tend to disagree with Malthus and Lasch on the material limits. Human ingenuity is rather amazing, and necessity remains the mother of invention. This is covered rather well by Matt Ridley in "The Rational Optimist" which I have read, but for some reason failed to review and blog on. The linked Gilder review seems pretty accurate. I see the earthly limits of the human spirit without God to be much more troubling than material limits. Fusion, nanotech, mining asteroids, and probably much more mundane technological solutions have a way of "cropping up"  ... see Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution. 

The spiritual limits are much more problematic. It seems increasingly obvious that the "God is dead, let's kill the family and community as well, and then we will be free" idea has failed rather miserably, although bad ideas are a bit like zombies ... they often stagger along on momentum long after they should be in the grave.