I used to think that we humans are progressing over time but now I realize that things are more complicated than that. We are regressing in certain things and progressing in others. Examples;

- we used to have a much more effective law and justice system in our traditional societies than we currently have. Cases in the past were decided quickly by elders unlike now in Kenya where you're lost in the court system and a lot of people get away with theft and murder.
- corruption has become even worse with the introduction of money in currency. in the old days wealth was mostly in the form of cattle, goats, sheep, land etc. no one could rob the community without them noticing.
- we've become much more unhealthy in modern times. If you look at very old pictures of Kenya say 1900s, you'll notice that not even the older women with kids were obese. now people somehow assume that a middle aged man or woman will have a belly
- whole neighborhoods such as buru buru, umoja etc have degraded over time as all playing fields were stolen and uncontrolled construction turns these places into a giant slum with lots of insecurity
- we've lost the sense of community that existed in the past with the result that there's now lots of lonely people in our modern societies
- we've benefited and lost from modern medicine. the benefits are the cures for diseases we didn't have before, the losses are from the harm caused by modern medicine such as over-prescription of medicines and resultant side effects, surgeries that shouldn't have been done, medical errors by doctors etc
- apartments built in the past - say the 60s and 70s used to be much better spaced and had lots of green space. Now we are dealing with the concrete jungle.
- also you'd think that modern architecture would be an improvement on the past but you only need to visit old Europe to see that the beauty and charm of old architecture was lost somewhere.