Has the World Actually Improved?
- Luis A. Marrero
- 1 minute ago
- 7 min read
Looking Honestly at Human Progress — and Why Meaning Matters More Than Ever
© Luis A. Marrero. Boston Institute for Meaningful Purpose
[Text written by, with, and for human intelligence.]
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This article is the second in a trilogy. The first being, “Is the World Getting Happier? — And What We’re Missing.”
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It is easy to believe we are living in the worst of times. Every day brings headlines about conflict, uncertainty, economic pressure, and social division. Many people feel overwhelmed, sensing that something fundamental in society is breaking down. I hear this concern often in conversations with clients, students, and colleagues — a quiet but persistent question beneath it all:
Are things actually getting worse, or does it only feel that way?
To answer honestly, we must step outside the noise of the present moment and examine humanity across time. When we do, a surprising picture emerges — one not of steady decline, but of extraordinary progress alongside a growing struggle to understand what that progress is for.
We Are Living in the Most Prosperous Era in Human History
What feels ordinary today would have been unimaginable security for most humans who ever lived.
For most of human existence, poverty was the normal human condition. Around 1800, nearly everyone on Earth lived in extreme poverty. Daily life revolved around survival — securing food, shelter, and safety.
Today, extreme poverty has fallen dramatically worldwide (World Bank, 2023). Long-term economic analyses show that global income per person has increased manyfold since the Industrial Revolution (Maddison, 2007).
Electricity, refrigeration, modern transportation, and global communication now shape ordinary life. These improvements happened gradually enough that we often overlook their significance.
Humanity did not eliminate hardship, but it substantially reduced the constant threat to survival.
Humans Are Living Longer and Healthier Lives
The greatest revolution in history may not be technological, but biological — more people surviving long enough to live fully.
For most of history, average life expectancy hovered around 30 years. Disease and poor sanitation were persistent threats.
Today, global life expectancy exceeds 70 years (United Nations, 2022; World Health Organization, 2023). Child mortality — once tragically common — has declined dramatically due to vaccines, medical advances, and public health systems (Cutler et al., 2006; Roser et al., 2019).
Millions of lives that once ended early now unfold across decades, allowing relationships, learning, and contributions that history rarely permitted.
Education Has Expanded Human Possibility
When literacy expands, human agency expands with it.
Literacy was once limited to elites. Today, most of humanity can read and write (Roser & Ortiz-Ospina, 2018; UNESCO, 2023).
Education transforms how individuals interpret reality and participate in society. It expands choice — and with choice comes responsibility for direction.
Technology Has Multiplied Human Capability
Human power has expanded faster than human wisdom has historically adapted.
Modern technological innovation has accelerated communication, productivity, and access to knowledge at unprecedented speed (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2014).
Many people now carry in their pockets computing power greater than what guided early space missions. Human capability has expanded exponentially.
But increased capability introduces a new question: What should we do with this power?
Even Violence Shows Long-Term Declines
The world feels more dangerous partly because we now witness every danger in real time.
Historical analyses suggest long-term declines in many forms of violence relative to population size (Pinker, 2011; Human Security Report Project, 2013).
Modern media continuously exposes global crises, shaping perception even as long-term trends improve.
When Survival Dominates Life, Meaning Is Rarely Questioned
The central human problem changes when survival is no longer the central struggle.
Here we reach a crucial insight.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow (1943) proposed that human attention follows need. When basic survival needs — food, safety, stability — are threatened, they dominate consciousness. Reflection about purpose or fulfillment becomes secondary because survival demands immediate focus.
History confirms this pattern. For most humans across time, life’s purpose was largely implicit: survive, protect family, endure hardship.
Meaning did not disappear — it simply did not require conscious examination.
Necessity organized life automatically.
When Survival Improves, Meaning Becomes Unavoidable
Freedom expands faster than guidance.
As societies become safer and more prosperous, something psychologically profound happens.
People gain space to reflect.
With survival more secure, individuals begin asking new questions:
Why am I doing this work?
What kind of life should I live?
What truly matters?
Viktor Frankl (1963) observed this shift after World War II. As societies rebuilt and survival conditions improved, many individuals experienced what he called an existential vacuum — not because life worsened, but because traditional structures that once provided direction weakened while personal freedom increased.
In other words, progress removed necessity as the organizer of life and transferred responsibility for meaning to the individual.
Meaning moved from being inherited to being discovered.
Why World Progress Can Coincide With Anxiety
Progress solves survival problems while revealing problems of meaning and purpose.
Modern dissatisfaction is often misunderstood as evidence that society is failing. Another interpretation is possible.
Humanity solved many external constraints faster than it developed internal orientation.
We now possess unprecedented choice, mobility, and opportunity. Yet greater freedom requires greater clarity about values, aims, and responsibility.
Without orientation, expanded possibilities can feel overwhelming rather than liberating.
Progress improved conditions. Meaning must organize them.
The future of humanity will depend less on what we build and more on the meaning guiding why we build it.
Progress and Happiness
This tension between progress and dissatisfaction is something I explored more directly in a previous essay, Is the World Getting Happier? — And What We’re Missing. There, I examined global well-being data showing that even as humanity becomes wealthier, healthier, and more technologically advanced, reported happiness and hope have not consistently risen — and in some groups have declined. The findings suggest that progress in external conditions does not automatically translate into internal flourishing. Rather, when survival pressures ease, the central human challenge shifts toward meaning: how individuals interpret their lives, relate to others, and orient their aims. Seen together, these two discussions reveal a single insight — the world may be improving materially while simultaneously confronting a deeper question about how to live meaningfully within that improvement.
Progress Is Not the Same as Direction
When I look at the arc of human history, I see remarkable advancement — longer lives, greater knowledge, expanded capability. Humanity has achieved what previous generations could scarcely imagine.
But progress alone does not provide direction.
A society can become more powerful without becoming wiser. Individuals can gain more options without gaining clarity. Technology amplifies action but does not determine a meaningful purpose.
When survival dominates life, meaning is assumed. When survival improves, meaning becomes a conscious task.
Perhaps this is the real challenge of our time. Humanity has gained extraordinary capability. The question now is whether we can align that capability with wisdom, responsibility, and meaningful purpose.
Progress created opportunity.
Logoteleological meaning determines what we do with it.
Humanity at a Crossroad: The Meaningful Path
We may now find ourselves at a genuine crossroads. Humanity’s growing power forces a choice between two paths. One is the meaningful path — grounded in a deeper understanding of human dignity, responsibility, and potential, where our expanding knowledge and technology are guided by wiser meanings about who we are and what we are capable of becoming.
The other is a meaningless path, in which humans are increasingly viewed as objects to be optimized, managed, or manipulated rather than people to be understood and cultivated (Marrero, 2013; Marrero & Persuitte, 2022). Technological advancement is accelerating far faster than the development of character and values needed to steward it wisely. If we fail to examine and elevate the meanings we hold about human beings — what they are, why they matter, and what they are for — we risk misusing the very achievements meant to improve life.
The challenge before us, then, is not to slow progress but to mature the meaning guiding it. The call of our time may simply be this: to remain sober about our power and to consciously choose meaningfulness as the foundation for how we move forward together.
If you would like to explore why progress alone does not guarantee happiness, see my related article: “Is the World Getting Happier? — And What We’re Missing.”
References
Brynjolfsson, E., & McAfee, A. (2014). The second machine age: Work, progress, and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies. W. W. Norton & Company.
Cutler, D. M., Deaton, A., & Lleras-Muney, A. (2006). The determinants of mortality. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(3), 97–120. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.20.3.97
Frankl, V. E. (1963). Man’s search for meaning. Beacon Press.
Human Security Report Project. (2013). Human security report 2013: The decline in global violence. Simon Fraser University.
Maddison, A. (2007). Contours of the world economy, 1–2030 AD: Essays in macro-economic history. Oxford University Press.
Marrero, L.A. (2013). The Path to a Meaningful Purpose: Psychological Foundations of Logoteleology. iUniverse.
Marrero, L.A., & Persuitte, D. (2022). Meaningful Purpose: A Primer in Logoteleology. iUniverse.
Marrero, LA. (2026). Is the World Getting Happier? – and What We’re Missing. Boston Institute for Meaningful Purpose. https://www.bostonimp.com/post/is-the-world-getting-happier-and-what-we-re-missing
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346
Pinker, S. (2011). The better angels of our nature: Why violence has declined. Viking.
Roser, M., & Ortiz-Ospina, E. (2018). Literacy. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/literacy
Roser, M., Ritchie, H., & Dadonaite, B. (2019). Child mortality. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2022). World population prospects 2022. United Nations.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics. (2023). Global education monitoring report. UNESCO.
World Bank. (2023). Poverty and shared prosperity 2022: Correcting course. World Bank.
World Health Organization. (2023). World health statistics 2023: Monitoring health for the SDGs. World Health Organization.
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