Self-Reliance - Society Never Advances"Society never advances. It recedes on one side as quickly as it gains on the other. ...For everything that 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 messed up every which way you look. People are starving while others have too much money to spend. Our population is out of control. We pollute endlessly. Is ours one of the best countries in the world? The tumors of society seem to continue to grow but I want them to stop. These problems bothered me to the point of depression when I discovered them, but now I can handle my knowledge. One thing that has helped me is learning about American history. I thought we were on the verge of imminent collapse due to budgetary, environmental, and social problems, but I have learned about the problems America has faced over the years. Now I know that this time period is no worse than the past. Yes, it's not worse than the past, but as the quote suggests, not better either. We continue to seek progress, initiating new social programs and developing new scientific solutions. Sometimes we make a little progress. The discovery of penicillin was a great boon to the medical industry. We are on track to lose this advantage as antibiotic-resistant microbes invade our bodies. We eliminated slavery and segregation, but the gap between rich and poor grew to compensate for this victory. We make scientific progress, yet more ox carts are used around the world than there have ever been in the history of mankind. Are we actually making progress? I write this on a machine more powerful than the entire computing power of the world just sixty years ago.