Norm Geras rips into John Gray's claim that the West is deluded by "a myth of progress in which humanity is converging on a universal set of institutions and values:"
I could argue against this by saying that one can 'believe' in progress in a different way: that is, simply by thinking it might be possible to make changes for the better, improving the world as we know it now, but without imagining that all conflicts can be brought to an end or all serious human problems solved. However, as Gray is evidently resistant to this notion, perhaps I'll just leave it at this: even if we were to listen to him and fasten our attention on the present, take meaning from the here and now, human beings seem to have an impulse to do things better - better next time than last time, avoiding that mistake, introducing this modification, and so on. They also, many of them, want good things for their children, sometimes better things than they had themselves or perceived they had. For these kinds of reason, the present already contains something of the future, and living in the present can't entirely shut the future out.
The Dish 