Making Progress
Yesterday, I had a bad crash over the lip of a wave, hurting my arm. It was terrifying.
Today I had a great surf session, the sun out for the first time in ages, the water temperature far too warm for May.
Progress is slow, yet steady.
I consider the progress narrative of humanity.
What are we progressing really?
Leisure time?
Hunter gathers needed to work for their food for about three hours a day and spent the rest of their time in play.
Kindness and compassion?
Ohff. This question hurts because kindness and compassion is hard to find on the global stage.
Technology?
Yes and no. My washing machine is fantastic. I love that I can fly to the other side of the world. I love being able to teach classes to a global audience, bare feet, from home. I like going to the dentist and getting a pain blocker, or that my partner had open heart surgery to repair a faulty mitral valve. Yet technology designed for addiction, stoking fear, seeding propaganda, and costing the Earth – if we did an all-in-accounting cost of many technologies, we would only find cost, cost, cost in almost every domain. Mental health, environmental, time, relational, resource, life-affirming, energy, supply chain costs including child slavery, and the cost to most of humanity, so that the elite can accumulate more.
We avoid, even to this day, the truth of all-in-accounting, because if we did consider all-in-accounting, Synergistic Accounting in Syntropic World, then it would be very hard to find a ‘profitable’ enterprise.
What about our progress toward freedom?
Free for some, enslavement for most. Slave to the job, the treadmill, the role, dictator, the state.
If we are to truly entertain the progress narrative, we might first be honest about what we are seeking to progress towards.
In my surfing progress, it’s simple. Be a better surfer. Surf the face of the wave, make turns, and handle bigger waves better. Skill and confidence development. Increased patience. Oneness with the wave, with Nature.
Humanity’s progress?
If it is not towards an increased well-being for Earth and all her creatures, then I am not interested in progress.
This is the Syntropic Way.
Photo May 5th 2022, Article written May 18th 2025
