A more nuanced version of this argument is, different people in democratic electorates disagree wildly on what constitutes an improvement to society. A practice or institution that is an improvement to one constituency is a detriment to another constituency, and that other constituency will seek to destroy the practice the moment they have the electoral power to do so.
All while successive technological discoveries raise the minimum standard of thought: vertiginously, incomprehensibly, unattainably. Something's got to give.
