Progress is moving forward, instead of backwards. Of course, that is more or less the dictionary response, so I will go deeper than that.
Progress is learning from our mistakes. Are we constantly faced with the same problems, the ones that we were told were fixed? And are we solving those problems in the same way that did not work last time? Well, then we aren't as progressive as we thought. Progress means we must look back at our mistakes and realize why we made those mistakes to begin with. Are we headed down the same paths? Then we must read the writing on the wall, using wisdom from the past to translate the writing. Then, perhaps, the problem can be prevented, instead of cured. Of course, this means that we must deal with ourselves, as a community, an individual, government, or planet, at a time that we aren't proud of. Is any American proud of what we did to immigrants? I doubt it. But we are faced with immigration issues again. Will we forget what we did last time and pass useless legislation? Will we try what was tried back then, and use discrimination as a way to force them into the jobs that no one else wants, to prevent the good jobs from being taken, and hopefully stop immigration? I hope not. But I do believe we can use the last time something similar happened, and hopefully learn what the consequences of that decision will be, rather than having to learn by trial and error. In a way "Re-inventing the wheel."
Also, we need to understand that there are positive things we can learn from the past. Often, history gives us the impression that today's world is so much better than "back then." No matter what the age or country, there were problems. Wars, famine, natural disasters, but can we say we handle problems so much better? There is much to learn from the past, such as integrity, perseverence, and creativity. And without knowing your past, can you really know who you are, or where you are going? In the same vein, we must realize we always have farther to go, and always will. We will never be perfect, but we must still work to be better. Ben Franklin said, "When you're finished changing, you're finished." Clearly, our society is not finished.
Simply put, Progress is learning from your choices, the good and the bad, Understanding where you came from and where you are going, and most importantly, knowing you always have more to do, always striving to be better.
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I think you gave a great definition of progress! It is so true that we need to look at the past to learn from our mistakes and fix things. We would save so much time messing around trying to figure things out if we just took the time to look back and see what works and doesn't work. Great job!
You are so right!! How can we progress if we don't learn form our mistakes? How can we improve if we are not willing to take a step back and say "wait a minute".
i totally agree with you! If you look through history we are constantly repeating our mistakes, you would think by now we would have learned but yet we still havent.