Mastodawn

Leaning heavily on @pluralistic I wrote a thing about how the intertwined enshittification of our public and private sectors requires us to think hard about what we mean by ‘progress’.
https://savemefromwhatiwant.blogspot.com/2026/03/progression.html

Progression

What does the word ‘progress’ mean to you? What do you think of when you hear that word? Does it conjure up a relentless march of technology...

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Hex Apr 6

@edric @pluralistic Progress is the realisation of Utopias.
-- Oscar Wilde, 1891

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GeofCox Apr 6

@hexmasteen @edric @pluralistic

I don't think there has been much 'progress' at all in the 'western world' over the last 40 years.

My grandfather lived from a time you never saw a car or an aeroplane - indeed a world in which there were no aeroplanes - to see men walk on the moon. In Europe, at least, the big advances - pretty universal utility connections, radio and television, public health and care services, understanding disease transmission - you know, all the things that really make people safe and happy - were made in my grandfather's lifetime.

My life, by comparison, has seen relatively little 'progress'. Different screens in people's homes, some medical advances - but nothing on the scale of public water supply or sewer installation, or state healthcare, to really impact the health of millions; indeed, I have even lived to see the start of decline in life expectancy, and return of diseases we thought had gone.

The only big area of progress I see now is green technology - mainly imported from China.

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spanghero

@GeofCox @hexmasteen @edric @pluralistic Coincidentally I shared similar thoughts with Mrs. Spanghero on Sunday. In Torquay they've placed copies of artwork around the seafront and one of them was a painting of an early steam train with a horses 'working the field' in the background. It's Turner's Rain, Steam and Speed from 1844.