Is Progress Our Most Important Product?

A significant part of my brain, the non-Parkinson’s dominated part, re-examined the notion that humanity is making progress. I am not certain that is true. Yes, we have modern day toys and on demand everything via cell phones and other mobile devices, but there are other aspects of the human race that make the race seem slow and lethargic, even running backwards at times. Growing up in the sixties I engaged in quite a few heated discussions with people who stood at the opposite extreme of the political spectrum. Yes, they were quite heated, but they were discussions. If my opponents were family we sat down to eat after debating. In college an exhausting bull session would often be followed by a spirited basketball game amongst those who argued the positive and those who championed the negative. The Other, in its most bestial form did not exist.,,,at least not in my world. I did not wish death and destruction on those who disagreed with my viewpoints. As a result of those myriad discussions, I felt that the human race was making progress. This was my primary stance. In my more depressing moments I believed the concept of of progress a myth, a fairy tale created by those who thought the glass was always half full. Then, last November, I read an article in the newspaper that made me revisit that paradigm.

Apparently the powers-that-be in North Korea were offended by the powers-that-be in South Korea. South Korea sent hot air balloons over the 38th parallel and dumped papers on their northern neighbors that were interpreted by the North as capitalist propaganda.

Naturally (human nature being what it is), the North Koreans sent hot air balloons south, only these balloons carried garbage.

As I read the article, I began thinking about whether or not this was progress. At first examination, it appears somewhat regressive, almost barbaric to retaliate by dumping trash on your countrymen and countrywomen who are separated from their northern brethren only by an invisible latitudinal line and a political and idealogical phantasm. After all, at an earlier point in time there was only Korea, undivided. One culture, one civilization. And it is not really progress in terms of technology because “battle balloons” are not new weapons. In World War II the Japanese war machine included sending large balloons laden with bombs across the Pacific. Some even reached the Northwest part of the United States. And in recent memory China has floated a balloon or two over our nation, its mission unknown.

We shot it down of course, not knowing what it was.

After reading the article about the balloon war being waged by North and South Korea, I concluded that the engagement was rather primitive in nature. And then I thought, maybe this is the future. Perhaps I was looking for progress in the wrong places.

Maybe dropping garbage does reflect progress. I would rather have a bag of six month old rotten limburger cheese, filled baby diapers, year old fruit medley, and stale kimchi than be evaporated by a twenty megaton fusion atomic bomb….well, maybe I will have to rethink that.

Imagine if all the nations of the world disposed of their nuclear weaponry and death rays and only used garbage bombs delivered by large hot air balloons. People would get dirty, of course, but they would be alive dirty. And the balance of power in the world would change dramatically because the nations with the most trash would have a distinct advantage over those countries with less ammunition. (fellow Americans, fear not. We are at the top of the list, each American producing more than 5.5 pounds of trash each day.) The United Nations Security Council would have to include such trash heavy nations such as Switzerland, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and Guyana.

We would still have armies and navies, but instead of focusing billions of dollars on costly weapons that would obliterate life on this planet, weapons we hope never to use, generals and admirals will apply their military skills toward developing better delivery systems, faster and higher hot air balloons. Weather forecasters will be key contributors to war mongering, and recycling trash will be redefined: different kinds of garbage for different tactics.
An unmanned drone I believe would be more expensive to create than an unmanned hot air balloon. And most hot air balloons will probably be shot down by large arrows which will also be cheaper than modern rockets trying to shoot down drones.. Most of the WT (War Trash) will be destroyed over the oceans which is where most of the present day garbage ends up. So what is the difference? The difference is that people will survive Trash Wars. Nations will tire of surviving banana peel rainstorms and McDonald’s nuggets hail, and cheese whiz sleet. They will seek peace. And when they get tired of peace, they will start wars.

I started this writing exercise believing that hot air balloon wars were a sign of progress. But now that little voice pipes up. My older brother Raymond’s words also pipe up. His mantra was “It’s a rat race, and the rats are winning.” War is still war. Perhaps whether humans are making progress or not depends on how you define progress….what parameters should we use? Advances in technology certainly represent progress. People are living longer because of better medical advances. But some of the technology is used to kill others. And most of the world’s people do not have access to the internet or to cutting edge medicine. Hate and bigotry are not, to me, on the decline. Quite the opposite, I believe, is true. I don’t know. How valid is Twain’s observation? Perhaps an analogy is found in cosmology.

Most cosmologists support the Big Bang theory, how the universe exploded into being, is still exploding, and they trace its progress through examining the stars and the galaxies the stars belong to. The universe is expanding. Other scientists believe in a Steady State Universe. The universe always has been and always will be. So I can either board the train of human progress and believe that the future will be better than today, or I can sigh and surrender to the notion in a Steady State of human nature. What is the phrase I hear most often almost every day? “It is what it is.” What do you think?