Introduction | A Man at the Airport

A middle-aged man sits in an airport waiting lounge. With a small phone, he books his flight, messages his family, listens to a podcast, reads world news, and simultaneously joins a video meeting.

His grandfather, a hundred years ago, would have had to wait weeks to accomplish just one of these tasks. Life today, in terms of tools and possibilities, is unprecedented.

But one simple question complicates everything: Is this man calmer?

Does he, despite all these possibilities, enjoy life more deeply? Has his anxiety decreased? The answer is not clear. And this very ambiguity is the core of the paradox of progress and dissatisfaction.

Progress Must Be Acknowledged

Denying progress is denying reality. Life expectancy has nearly doubled in the last hundred years. Child mortality has fallen sharply, and diseases that were once deadly are now treatable.

Education has also expanded unprecedentedly. Global literacy has risen from about twenty percent at the beginning of the twentieth century to over eighty percent. Communication technology has shortened distances and made access to knowledge public.

Absolute poverty has also decreased globally. Access to clean water, electricity, and basic healthcare has been provided for millions.

If we take only material indicators as our criterion, the answer is clear: modern humans live better. But the main question lies elsewhere: Is “living better” the same as “living well”?

But Something Strange Has Happened

Right in the heart of this progress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, and burnout are on the rise. The World Health Organization considers depression one of the leading causes of disability worldwide and predicts its burden will increase by 2030.

Loneliness is no longer limited to the elderly. In societies with unprecedented communication facilities, many feel deep loneliness. Burnout and a sense of meaninglessness have also become familiar words in modern life.

This means we are experiencing one of the most critical emotional and existential periods in history, in the best material conditions.

Scientific Findings | When Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness

This contradiction is not just a personal feeling. Richard Easterlin in the 1970s showed that within a society, wealthier individuals are usually more satisfied; but when the whole society becomes wealthier, general satisfaction does not increase proportionally. This finding became known as the “Easterlin Paradox.”

Daniel Kahneman and colleagues, in a large-scale study, also showed that beyond a certain income level, further increases have little effect on daily happiness. Of course, some later research has considered this relationship more complex; but the general consensus is that money is only part of the equation.

Analysis | Five Hidden Gaps

The paradox of progress and dissatisfaction does not have a single cause. Five gaps shape it:

1. Rising Expectations: Every progress creates a new standard. A warm house was yesterday a dream; today it is a natural expectation. The ladder of possibilities is endless, and the finish line keeps moving forward.
2. Psychological Adaptation: Our brains adapt to success. A new house, a new car, and a new salary become normal after a few months. The initial pleasure fades, and the cycle of “wanting, achieving, and wanting again” repeats.
3. Endless Comparison: Humans are comparative creatures. Social media has expanded the scope of comparison from neighbors and relatives to millions of people. We compare our real lives with the best images of others’ lives and often lose.
4. The Speed of Life: More facilities were supposed to give more free time; but the speed of life has also increased. Hartmut Rosa calls this condition “social acceleration”: we are so busy going that we lose the chance to be. Experiences become superficial because we have no time to deepen them.
5. Loss of Meaning: Progress has answered the “how” questions: how to treat, how to communicate, how to produce. But the “why” question remains: Why do we live? What is success for? This meaning gap is the deepest layer of dissatisfaction.

Three Realms of Progress | The Ladder and the Wall

For a better understanding, progress can be divided into three realms. Imagine someone climbing a ladder. The ladder gets longer and the tools more advanced; but suddenly he realizes the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.

External Progress: This is climbing the ladder; technology, economy, medicine, and welfare. This realm has had unprecedented acceleration in the last century.

Inner Progress: This is the ability to climb; personality growth, emotional maturity, self-knowledge, and the capacity to enjoy life. This realm does not depend on material facilities, but is often neglected in modern life.

Existential Progress: This is understanding which wall the ladder leans against and whether that wall is worth climbing. It means finding meaning, direction, and an answer to the question “For what do I live?”

Modern humans have been very successful in the external realm but have lagged behind in the inner and existential realms. This lag explains the paradox of progress and dissatisfaction.

Conclusion | Progress Is a Means, Not an End

The problem is not progress itself. Progress has real and valuable achievements whose denial is not only incorrect but unjust. The problem is that we have mistaken progress for meaning and considered it the ultimate goal.

More facilities do not necessarily make a better life. Perhaps the problem is not that we have little; perhaps we don’t know what what we have is for. Like a traveler who has packed his bags well but has forgotten the destination.

If we consider progress a means to a better life, not a substitute for it, we can enjoy both the facilities and life. The main question is: What is progress for?

References

1. Easterlin, R. A. (1974). “Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence.” In P. A. David & M. W. Reder (Eds.), *Nations and Households in Economic Growth*. New York: Academic Press.
2. Kahneman, D. (2011). *Thinking, Fast and Slow*. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
3. Diener, E., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2008). *Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth*. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
4. Frankl, V. E. (1946). *Man’s Search for Meaning*. Vienna: Verlag für Jugend und Volk.
5. Layard, R. (2005). *Happiness: Lessons from a New Science*. London: Penguin Press.
6. World Health Organization. (2017). *Depression and Other Common Mental Disorders: Global Health Estimates*. Geneva: WHO.
7. Nussbaum, M. C. (2011). *Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach*. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
8. Sen, A. (1999). *Development as Freedom*. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
9. Tabatabai, S. J. (2005). “Modernity and the Crisis of Meaning.” *Social Science Quarterly*, No. 4. (in Persian)