But it’s boring to criticize the 50s for not being as “enlightened” as the 70s, or think that “progress” doesn’t have trade-offs. I put “progress” in “quotes” because the term is generally used to describe the devolution of social strictures, and while I think many such erosions had salutary effects, civilizations often mistake change for progress. Any change premised on the mutability of human nature usually ends up being a mistake. Not the mutability of people; we’re quite pliable. Our natures, however, are fixed.