In the Western world, particularly since the Enlightenment, people view the human story as a linear tale with a beginning, middle and end. We've also projected a happy ending onto the tale, assuming that, generation by generation, the human lot improves and that, as Gray says, "improvement in society is cumulative." Gray's dour prognosis is that "human knowledge tends to increase but humans do not become any more civilized as a result. They remain prone to every kind of barbarism, and while the growth of knowledge allows them to improve their material conditions, it also increases the savagery of their conflicts."

If humanity simply is what humanity is, then no magic of technology, discovery of abundant resources or extraterrestrial intervention will free people from suffering and self-inflicted cruelty. Gray prefers ancient, pre-Christian myths that, he says, explain the human condition without appealing to progressive notions. In the Garden of Eden story, he says, "there is no promise … of any return to a state of primordial innocence. Once the fruit has been eaten, there's no going back."

Gray's advice at the end of Black Mass is to stop trying to change the world, especially through politics. Modern life requires "no grand vision of human advance, only the courage to cope with recurring evils." He may be right, but his outlook is too bleak to win many converts.

http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/10/utopia-po...y-oped-utopia08-cx_mm_0410gray.html