How progress undermines humanity

A millennium and a quarter century later, the question is: where do we go from here? The answer lies in our past conduct.

World pivots on human actions, not coincidences. It is confined within natural life cycle, climate change, disease and human choice. Modern leaders still choose to mimic behaviours displayed by their predecessors. They subjugated and captured others' resources, thereby projecting power and glory, while escaping accountability. Enlightenment through divine sources and human endeavours did not stop us from brutalising others.

In 1000 AD, life was slow, unlike today's hyperconnected and hyperactive online existence. Earlier, empires had collapsed into fragmented territories marked with uneven progress. Class and gender roles were rigidly defined, with 90% of people living in poverty, while elites enjoying privileged lives. World population was around 300 million, and life expectancy was low, near 40 years.

Global South in 1000–1300 (depicting modern world divisions) led progress owing to Islamic Golden Age, China and India. Meanwhile, Islamic world was weakened by dynastic politics, exacerbated by Crusades (3 million deaths), and finally devastated by Mongols (60 million deaths). Global North was poor and consisted of emerging Europe and Byzantium.

World in early 1300–1500 faced demographic collapse due to Black Death, and lost 25% of its population. That period saw Ottoman ascent, Mughal rise and emergence of Shia Safavids, but Islamic unity was undermined by Shia-Sunni conflicts. Ghazali's attack on independent reasoning constrained Islamic thought, combined with geopolitical shocks, incapacitated Muslims from escaping intellectual and socio-political morass since then. Europe, in contrast, entered Renaissance, fueled by Protestant Reformation, but remained embroiled in centuries of conflicts.

A new world was born in 1500–1800. Ottomans peaked beside Mughals and Safavids, but stagnation accelerated their collapse. Europe embarked on exploration and colonisation, inflicting a death toll of about 250 million people, with Britain holding the largest share. Europe's economy was built on extracted wealth, bypassing Islamic world, leveraging African slave labour and scientific revolution.

Next two centuries (1800–1900) saw birth of North–South divide and placed world's fate in European hands. This period, described as "Hockey Stick" stagnation and rise of industrialisation, established Europe's control over half the world's land and population, regulating resources, trade and finance, and dominating manufacturing. Global South was deindustrialised, and turned into raw material suppliers under client regimes.

Europe's philosophical break from dogma proclaimed universal rights and sovereignty, inspired revolutions and nationalism. This translated unevenly into nation-states, marking a multipolar world. Competition over finite resources led to World War-I leaving 17 million dead. Ottoman demise plunged Islamic world into colonised, demoralised states – a condition largely unchanged.

Capitalist exploitation sparked socialist and communist movements, most notably Russian Revolution, which in itself was another form of authoritarian extraction. Ideological contest between capitalism and communism defined geopolitics, and culminated in World War-II causing 85 million deaths. Human savagery reached new extremity with nuclear annihilation. With no lessons learned, world powers entered Cold War between US/Europe and Soviet Union, while Non-Aligned Movement failed.

An imperfect UN-led order emerged to prevent global wars and resolve differences, keeping Western interests intact. Peace was preserved except for regional conflicts, proxy wars and regime changes. Decolonisation produced truncated borders and fragile states that remained hostage to client rulers. Pakistan was no exception. Abrupt end of Cold War with Soviet collapse (1991) created a transient unipolar world, but was challenged by renewed authoritarianism and non-state actors.

Global North led scientific and technological progress and put humans on Moon, as industrial age transitioned into information age. China consolidated as cheap-goods supplier, East Asian economies rose, and Apartheid ended. Millennium was marked by loss of over 400 million lives, and perpetuation of inequality. World GDP grew from $2 trillion (1750) to $34 trillion and moved to $117 trillion (2025) while surviving many global crises. Population reached 6 billion, and life expectancy improved to 67 years globally. A sobering end.

Dawn of 21st Century continues to see sovereignty challenges amid North-South imbalance in the world. It remains trapped in pursuit of national interest fortified with Machiavellian disregard for collective peace and well-being. 9/11 shocked the world and eroded post-Cold War optimism. The "War on Terror" destroyed Afghanistan, though not directly involved in the terror attacks, and Iraq's fate was sealed under false WMD claims, unraveling Middle East and Africa as collateral damage. Meanwhile, Israel continues genocide of Palestinians; a second Nakba occurred in 2023.

Today, world peace is fragile. NATO expansion met Russian retaliation in Ukraine. America First policies weakened alliances and pushed world toward multipolarity, which mirrors pre-WWI order. World is exposed to multiple flashpoints, with 59 active conflicts involving 92 countries, displacing more than 100 million people. Still, 800 million remain in extreme poverty, with post-1945 death toll reaching 50 million.

Global North continues extraction through technological dominance under connectivity narrative. As world entered AI age (2020), it promised growth while ignoring risks, rewiring humanity toward uncertain future.

Planet is near climate threshold of 1.5°C+ warming, ice sheet collapse, dying reefs, permafrost thaw and water conflicts brewing. Severe weather has hit most parts of the world and displaced more than 250 million over the past decade, which may reach nearly 1.2 billion people by 2050.

More than a millennium later, underlying phenomena remain same: self-interest, supremacy over fellow humans and resource capture. Unilateralism and lessening American support have undermined the UN and begun dismantling rule-based international order. This must compel other global players to step in to strengthen and reform the UN, thereby making the world a peaceful and decent place.

As for the Islamic world, the revival is not hampered by lack of resources but by client regimes maintaining status quo in self-interest. Solution is decreed: "Indeed, Allah will not change condition of a people until they change what is in themselves" (Quran 13:11). Or we keep waiting for someone to effect change, who has not turned up in last eight hundred years.

World must pivot to humanity as its North Star or await irreversible human and climate changes and global destruction. This is not a matter of 'if', but 'when' – provided we intervene in the larger interest of human race to reverse the course.