Driving to an early morning appointment in Boston, my son and I got mired in rush-hour traffic made worse by an accident: the trip took over 2 hours. Miles of backed-up cars, holding their passengers hostage in exhaust-polluted paralysis, the opposite of the sparkling air and freedom of movement we left behind in Northwood.
It was the final straw for me.
What an idiotic way to live! In that instant, I internalized how absurd our modern world has become. In my mind, the main villain is our blind devotion to progress. It is, without doubt, our secular religion, preaching that our lives are always a one-way escalator of upward mobility, that the future will always be better than what we have now.
While I agree that progress has brought us economic prosperity, it now threatens to lead us down a dead-end path that Trump is treading. The evidence is clear everywhere: Here’s just what was in the Washington Post on Nov. 14:
“[Scientists] are revealing hidden ways that thriving populations of many plants and animals — including wolves, bats, birds and trees — underpin humanity’s well-being. They are learning that without saving nature, we cannot save ourselves.”
Meanwhile, in another section, the paper notes how Trump is boycotting the 30th Annual UN Climate Conference, where scientists are pleading for the world to take action before it is too late:
“For President Donald Trump, little of this matters. He had denounced climate action as a ‘con job,’ wants to expand drilling for oil and gas off the U.S. coast, and has campaigned against the green policies of other Western countries.”
No doubt, this Western vision of progress has spurred spectacular economic growth, technological advance and material abundance. But today, we have reached a tipping point where the costs — ecological, psychological and moral — outweigh the gains.
In response, thinkers across disciplines are proposing a new concept of progress — one that neither rejects modernity nor abandons it but redefines it. The core idea is simple: if the fossil fuel-based way of living has generated both prosperity and environmental risks, we must change. Instead of encouraging people to get rich and accumulate more possessions, we need to find new ways to measure progress that emphasize well-being, resilience and ecological health.
No longer can we deny the damage that the forces of progress are causing: destabilizing the Earth’s climate, depleting resources and eroding local cultures. Carbon emissions, once a symbol of vitality, are now recognized as the main driver of global warming, with consequences that threaten human existence.
Furthermore, economic growth, rather than reducing inequality and social isolation, has worsened them. Why does progress have to mean endless growth? Why couldn’t progress instead reflect our ability to adapt and sustain the web of life on which all prosperity ultimately depends?
Evidence suggests that such a shift is not only necessary but quite feasible. Nations that enjoy high human development while using less natural resources — such as Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway — demonstrate that well-being can be decoupled from high emissions.
Cities are beginning to reimagine mobility around public transit, cycling and walkability. Agricultural systems are experimenting with regenerative methods that rebuild and promote biodiversity. These initiatives point toward a model of progress compatible with planetary boundaries.
For generations, progress has meant expansion, conquest and novelty. Rethinking it with a focus on restraint and balance requires a moral imagination as powerful as our technological skills. If we could simply acknowledge that endless growth on a finite planet is impossible, it might signal not the end of progress but its maturation. However, for this to happen, it must include a crucial psychological element.
A key flaw in our worship of progress is our refusal to acknowledge that loss is an inevitable part of daily life. According to Andreas Reckwitz, a professor at Humboldt University, in the New York Times, “liberal politics promise ever-greater well-being, expectations of rising living standards and expanding self-realization … The ideal of modern society is freedom from loss. This denial is Western modernity’s foundational lie.”
With a nod to a basic axiom in psychotherapy, he issues a warning that helps explain the rise of MAGA: “If politics continues to promise endless improvement, it will fuel disillusionment and strengthen populisms that thrive on betrayed expectations. But if we can learn to articulate a more holistic narrative — one that acknowledges loss, confronts vulnerability, redefines progress and pursues resilience — they may paradoxically renew themselves.”
Time is growing short. If we don’t change our ways, disaster awaits: Just as a meteor wiped out the dinosaurs, our obsession with progress will seal our fate.
Jean Stimmell, retired stone mason and psychotherapist, lives in Northwood and blogs at jstim.substack.com.