I think the author fails to understand the meaning of enlightenment. When you are enlightened in Dharmic eastern religions like Buddhism and hinduism, there is no what, you are in eternal ever lasting bliss and happiness, there is no chasing material desires as you don't care for them. But because we are in a capitalist mindset and we can't get out of it, we expect everything to have something more to gain from it with "now what", which is the greed and ego that enlightenment itself removes.
well the nations that saw others that were primitive, were much poorer, for example china and india were the 2 richest nations in the world, whilst britan was very poor and needed the industrial revolution, not india or china.
