Can Regression be confused with Progress?

"Satyam Vada Dharmam Chara" says the Taittiriya Upanishad. The Ninth Commandment of Moses says "Do not lie." In the Gospel according to St.Matthew (5:33-37), Jesus explicitly prohibits lying. In Quran (4:135), it is exhorted to "bear true witness, even though it be against yourselves, your parents or your kin." Nearer our own times, Sri Ramakrishna stated "Truthfulness is the true penance to be undertaken in the Kaliyuga."

In spite of these exhortations spread across all religions, truthfulness has become a liability rather than an asset in worldly life. But in spite of it, human behaviour, initially akin to animals, gradually refined itself into a more civilised, self-restrained pattern. Proximity among genders also achieved a golden mean of fastidiousness, to achieve a stable, durable society. 

From the 20th Century onwards, many of these restraining behaviours were thrown off in the name of social progress. It became fashionable to be "permissive". What were  considered aberrations earlier were the "new normal" & were even introduced into the law books.

The greatest regression currently under way is the work hour week. At the start of the industrial revolution, workers, including women & children were literally overworked to death. Spearheaded by Robert Owen, an industrialist himself & not a labourer, the 48 hour week came into being. Later it became an international law under International Labour Organisation. This achievement after more than 200 years of struggle, is now being thrown away, reverting the hapless workers into the barbaric ages when the taking of a loaf of bread by the hungry attracted the death penalty. Instead of punishing the exhorters as violators of human rights, it is being discussed as a viable option. 70 hour work week should be shared equally by two employees, not one.

It is a travesty of truth to say that we have progressed as human beings, when actually we have regressed by becoming less truthful, less cultured but more exploitative.