The ancients took it for granted that civilisations would rise, reach a peak, and then gradually decline, similar to other living things. It's a distinctly western/modern idea that there could be unceasing progress.
While both these views are essentially myths, my money is on the ancients being more in-line with reality. At the very least I don't need to look at decline and call it "weird". Permanent progress on the other hand is a political poison that will turn people against one another as they try to find the culprits.
While both these views are essentially myths, my money is on the ancients being more in-line with reality. At the very least I don't need to look at decline and call it "weird". Permanent progress on the other hand is a political poison that will turn people against one another as they try to find the culprits.