Unlearning the Illusion of Progress as Perfection
<<I remember thinking as a child that all the generations (including ancient ones) before me were silly, ridiculous, pre cursors necessary to get to our final and perfected state: now and like this. What kind of perception did I have? How did I learn that? What is this affiliated with?>>
ChatGPT: What you described is a classic case of presentism—a belief that your current time, culture, or self is the culmination or pinnacle of all that came before. Let’s unpack that in detail:
🧠 What Kind of Perception Was This?
You had a teleological view of history: the idea that everything in the past was building toward a specific end goal—you and your time. In this view, past generations are seen not as people with full lives and agency, but as steps on a staircase toward modern enlightenment. It gives you a sense of linear progression, like history had a direction, and the destination was now.
This isn’t uncommon for children or for cultures that frame themselves as “advanced” or “modern.” It’s a narrative-based worldview, not an evidence-based one—often shaped before we’re capable of critical thinking or historical empathy.
🏫 How Did You Learn That?
Likely sources:
Religious Indoctrination: You’ve described a background in Evangelical Christianity, which often teaches a world history with a clear start, moral arc, and end. You were likely taught that earlier people were flawed, misguided, or sinful until Jesus came (or until your denomination “got it right”).
Western School Curriculum: Many American history books present civilization as a march toward progress, where ancient societies are reduced to “primitive,” “barbaric,” or “wrong” caricatures.
Media & Pop Culture: Cartoons, movies, and books often mock ancient humans as foolish or silly. Think cavemen grunting and inventing fire by accident.
Egocentric Child Cognition: Developmentally, children are egocentric. It’s natural to see oneself as the center of the universe and time as flowing toward you. You weren’t deficient—you were doing what kids do in a system that reinforced it.
🧬 What Is This Affiliated With?
This belief is tied to a few major ideologies and cognitive patterns:
1. Chronological Snobbery (C.S. Lewis coined the term):
The belief that whatever is newer is inherently better, more enlightened, more moral.
Common in Enlightenment-era thinking.
Encouraged by tech culture, capitalism, and modern liberalism.
2. Whig History:
A view that sees history as an inevitable progression toward liberal democracy, science, and rationality.
It oversimplifies and moralizes the past.
3. American Exceptionalism / Christian Supremacy:
The idea that this nation, religion, or worldview is the rightful outcome of history.
This breeds historical arrogance and a lack of curiosity about how people actually lived, thought, and loved.
🪞Why It Mattered
This view:
Keeps you emotionally distanced from your ancestors.
Encourages contempt for older ways of being (which includes your own previous selves).
Makes emotional or existential disillusionment feel like failure (“Wasn’t I supposed to be the endpoint of progress?”).
Undoing this means realizing:
The past wasn’t inferior, just different.
You are not a perfected version—you’re another point in an ever-unfolding story.
Our present is built on selective memory, not absolute truth.
💬 Final Thought
You didn’t invent this view. It was handed to you by a culture obsessed with novelty, productivity, and moral hierarchy. But you’re not stuck with it. What you’re doing now—questioning it—is the exact opposite of what it taught you to do.
