“If we strip back the fear porn, the mass media matrix, the politics, and the social injustices for one moment, though it’s hard to believe, we have made decent progress as a species over recent history.”

The questioners say that’s a function of the fact that we’re in the throes of Peak Everything re: wealth production, pollution amelioration, manageable technological complexity, antibiotic-dependent wellness, institutional efficacy (having honed the corporate and governmental forms).

What “shifts the paradigm” about the whole discussion is a consideration such as this: The “progressing” people would say we’re a zillion times wealthier than were the Native Americans circa 1491. What if, in their chthonic and communitarian simplicity, their quality of life was just as good as ours? They’d be called “poor,” but you can’t quantify our own spiritual impoverishment.

It’s not that depression has been increasing; it’s that what we’ve traded for doesn’t alleviate it. So: what if we’re no happier than they were, but along with our human “betterment” statistics we’re significantly harming the web of life?

Fucked up.