It is now completely impossible to view the shift away from an agrarian society. . .

Experimental farm, Willson North Dakota.  1914.

as anything other than a tragic mistake, at best.

We've exchanged a life outdoors and close to nature for one indoors that's artificial.  We've lost our connection with nature in its real, and often not always kind, but always existentially beneficial, sense.  We've lost our connection with other animals in the same way.  In the process, we've made ourselves increasingly physically and mentally ill.  We know that, and in struggling to deal with it, we're moving in the opposite direction.

We've forgotten who are neighbors are.  We don't found real bonds of love with anyone.  We've forgotten what a community really is, as we don't live in them.  We have no connection with the place or the land.  We don't understand ourselves as creatures.  We're obsessed with money even when we claim we aren't.

The past was certainly not perfect by any measure.  And the present certainly isn't.  This year, 2020, has been a disaster.  A horrible pandemic that originated in the densely packed cities of China spread rapidly through the densely packed cities of the rest of the globe, and while we struggle to deal with it, the best we can come up with is to hide indoors.

Perhaps it's time to really reconsider what "progress" is, and where we're progressing to.