Autonomy - Society never progresses"Society never progresses. It retreats as quickly on one side as it gains on the other. ... Because everything what is given, something is taken.” Emerson, “Self Reliance,” p. 169. I agree with this statement, and it frustrates me to no end. Our country is screwed in every direction. People are starving while others have too much money to spend. Our population is out of control. We pollute endlessly. Is our country one of the best in the world? The tumors of society seem to continue to grow, but I want them gone. These problems disturbed me to the point of depression when I discovered them but now I can manage my knowledge. One thing that helped me was learning American history. I thought we were on the brink of imminent collapse due to fiscal, environmental, and social problems, but I discovered the problems America has faced over the years. Now I know that this period is no worse than the past. Yes, no worse than the past, but as the quote suggests, no better either. We continue to try to progress, launching new social programs and developing new scientific solutions. Sometimes we make a little progress. When penicillin was discovered, it was a great boon to the medical industry. We are on the verge of losing this gain as antibiotic-resistant microbes invade our bodies. We eliminated slavery and segregation, but the gap between rich and poor widened to compensate for this victory. We are making scientific progress, but there are more ox carts in use around the world than there have ever been in human history. Are we really making progress? I'm writing this on a machine more powerful than all the computing power in the world just sixty years ago..