Civilisation and progress

The concept of progress is something that has occupied my thoughts considerably over the years. The problem embedded in this term is that according to modern science, there is no such thing. What is called progress is nothing more than change, and it is our own chauvinistic attitude favouring our own culture that makes it seem to us that progress has taken place.
This, however, is a very counter-intuitive approach, and it is hard not to fall into the trap of thinking in terms of progress when studying both other cultures and our own. I myself am very careful in trying to avoid this primarily from a moral perspective. The dangers in trying to rank cultures in comparison to each other seems obvious in light of 20th century history. Still, intuitively, the difference between a culture basing its mobility on electricity and the combustion engines compared to one where people are still walking on their bare feet seems to be evident.
So, of what is this difference actually comprised? On the surface, you´d say more advanced technology, but what does that mean excactly? I will argue that the one basic element that can signify degrees in progress or civilisation is a term most commonly used in relation to modernity: fragmentation.
Fragmentation on every level is what makes "progress" possible, it is the division of the parts into ever smaller units, this speeds up all the particular processes within the whole, enabling it to grow in size. Please notice that there is no normative judgement in this whatsoever. Fragmentation, speed and size are not automatically better than their opposites, any advantages they offer are countered by equally strong disadvantages. For individuals in a society, this can be exemplified by the feeling of isolation and/or alienation that many in modern societies feel. From a different perspective, the destruction of the environment might be another.
So my main point might be that progress exists, but progress does not involve an increase in quality, only an increase in size (or potential size). Wandering aimlessly around in a forest, one can not be said to make progress. Progress is defined by its goal, in other words, once you decide to walk towards a particular tree, you can start making progress towards that tree, but who is to say, objectively, that this tree is any better than others?
This means, that all civilisations (not all cultures), at least the ones I have come across through my limited studies of history, try to make progress towards it´s goal of greater size. It´s means to this end is the fragmentation of social life, technology, philosophy and all other sides of existence. The citizens of any civililisation will usually pretend that their progress is a progress of morals, and will try to demonstrate this by comparing their own civilisation to other contemporary civilisations and to it´s own historical predecessors, hiding in their comparison certain facts about their own.
A good example of this is the way Athens is portrayed in most history books (or at least the ones I´ve read). The Athenians are usually given the credit for inventing democracy but, it is said, their democracy was not a true democracy, as many people where excluded from taking part in it. Women, slaves and foreigners where not allowed to participate in the democratic process. The implication here of course, is that today´s modern democracies have reached this "true" democracy that they speak of, which includes everyone.
I would argue that this is incorrect. Today, only citizens of a particular nation have the right to take part in that particular nation´s democratic process. So, even though Europeans own most factories in Africa and can run them more or less as they see fit, the people working in those factories have no vote in any organ that could control the owners of these factories. Europe and the rest of the vest through it´s superiour economic power, controls the African economy, and thus making any local democracy that might exist close to powerless.
The true democracy our haughty historians are looking for, can only exist when all national borders are erased, and that would also be a true progress in quality and morality. I will get back to this later. For now, suffice it to say that I have seen nothing that can be called progress towards a better society in the historical record, only the afforementioned increase in size.

-GD