I once thought that as civilisation progressed, so did our concern for beautiful things and places.
Even if there is only one-tenth of a percent more good than bad in technology, or if we create one percent more than we destroy each year, then that compounded is how civilisation progresses.
"Then the man took an axe and struck at the side of a hairy tree, more to hear the sound than for any other reason". The sound of civilisation; of progress.
"Now, go away and above all, never come back!" Yet the expatriate historians were teaching in African schools that Africans welcomed the advent of colonialism because it brought Christian civilisation and progress.
Those opposing action on climate change understand this well and frequently use images of electric light at night in their publicity as a metaphor for excitement, civilisation, and progress.
So the welfare state, looked upon as a touchstone of civilisation and progress by the left, has a chequered past.
Admit it, it's bloody true! Centuries of human civilisation and progress have all been a ruse to hide the fact that, deep down, we're all just bloody hopeless rape machines!
"Progress in civilisation has been accompanied by progress in cookery," she breezily announced, before launching into a collection of recipes that occasionally resembles a book of chemistry experiments.
God, progress, civilisation, there was nothing he could not doubt, least of all himself.
Instead it is what Mr Blair calls "a clash about civilisation" that pits progress against reaction around the world.
