On the Tendency for Pragmatism to Build Societies and Idealism to Destroy Them

Yeah, it seems that once a society achieves a certain level of stability and wealth (taming the elements, per se) it starts looking for new problems to solve (to the point where they inadvertently or on purpose seemingly create them themselves) and, youza, does that ever sound like us (the quest for such preposterous goals as total egalitarianism, open borders, weather control, etc.). Hopefully there's still time to steer clear from that upcoming iceberg but the way that everything looks now, confident I am not.