Have you heard about the term "kakistocracy"?
"Government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens."
Seems to coincide quite well with your conclusions in the chapter "Measuring Progress" of your book. Andreas 1/07/2014
I did not know the word "kakistocracy" until you mentioned it. It is possibly the best word to describe the situation on Earth today.
All countries on Earth are kakistocracies, rich and poor, developing and "developed".
Even if some apparently intelligent and educated person becomes a "president" - those "worst or least qualified" citizens in his country make sure that all his attempts to think and act progressively are comprehensively thwarted. Those "presidents" and activists who manage to begin thinking of progress on Earth have in the past been assassinated and their legacies perverted.
Ancient Greeks had names for many things (like atom, cosmos etc..). Ancient Greek language contains more words than modern English, including words that many people today cannot even begin thinking about. Try "sphingos" (sphinx) and "pyramidas" (pyramid) for example.
Becoming aware of kakistocracy is more important that you may initially think - if you consider what happened to kakistocratic societies and systems on Earth in the past. These societies have all collapsed...
So, identifying kakistocracy and kakistocratic tendencies is directly correlated to predicting future of humanity... Tom 1/07/2014