What Unifies the Enemies of Civilization?

The ideas that threaten progress all have something in common.

Although our society is becoming more dynamic over time, a few of the creativity-suppressing memes that dominated our ancestors survive to this day, albeit under different guises.

In one way or another, socialism, environmentalism, scientism, relativism, dogmatism, and doomerism curb our ability to make progress by slowing the growth of knowledge.

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The Radical Ideology Behind “Degrowth”

Degrowth is not merely a social, economic, or environmental policy critique; it directly challenges the principles of individual freedom.

To understand degrowth’s appeal, we must examine the philosophical roots of its radical vision.

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Explore the data

The Human Development Index (HDI) was created in 1990 by researchers at the United Nations Development Programme to measure the scope of human choices. The index combines a country’s average lifespan, education level, and income into a value between 0 and 1.

In 2022, the highest-scoring country in the index was Switzerland, with a value of 0.97. The lowest-scoring country was South Sudan, with 0.38.

This represents a massive disparity in wellbeing. More importantly, however, the index also reveals tremendous progress. Between 1990 and 2022, the global average HDI score grew by nearly 30 percent, with improvements happening almost everywhere in the world.