"Progress", Redux
Before I post my larger review of it, George Monbiot's new book, Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning has a poignant line about our sense of progress:
"We have come to believe we can do anything. We can do anything....Progress now depends upon the exercise of fewer opportunities." [p. 188]
If progress is an ever-improving standard of living, then faster double-decker jets, SUVs [or FU-V's], the mere existence of cruise ships, and 5000 square foot homes are just plain titillating. But if our recent centuries' industrial progress is destroying our environment, air, biodiversity and climate, we'd be fools to continue on as we are. If our relationship with ecology is going to suffer, we should stop doing things that will impede our survival.
Thus, progress means voluntarily embracing fewer freedoms if those freedoms are killing us. It's a no-brainer.
As one put it, "progress isn't always inevitable":
Click Me:

"We have come to believe we can do anything. We can do anything....Progress now depends upon the exercise of fewer opportunities." [p. 188]
If progress is an ever-improving standard of living, then faster double-decker jets, SUVs [or FU-V's], the mere existence of cruise ships, and 5000 square foot homes are just plain titillating. But if our recent centuries' industrial progress is destroying our environment, air, biodiversity and climate, we'd be fools to continue on as we are. If our relationship with ecology is going to suffer, we should stop doing things that will impede our survival.
Thus, progress means voluntarily embracing fewer freedoms if those freedoms are killing us. It's a no-brainer.
As one put it, "progress isn't always inevitable":
Click Me:

Labels: Activism, Agriculture, Bioregions, Class War, Community, Corporations, Ecology, Economics, Environment, Lifestyle, Natural Resources, Neoliberal Economics, Society
3 Comments:
I look forward to the review.
A thought:
What happens when a population in a closed system (such as a petri dish) is not controlled by predators?
They all die. Either because they run out of food or because they poison themselves by their own waste.
Like most humans, I like to think that we (humans) are different from other species, by virtue of "intelligence". But as it stands, we're heading quickly toward one of the two scenarios above. The world is our petri dish.
Somehow, during the Cold War, the idea of people working together in a rational, organized way -- against social, economic, or environmental problems -- got wrapped up, in the Western (or at least North American) popular imagination, with dictatorship. Somehow, in connection with the fall of the Soviet system, many people have become more convinced than ever that such problems are best solved by [i]not trying[/i]. Total absurdity, of course. But the doctrine that it is good for our species to behave like a plague of locusts -- we call it "capitalism" -- has become more firmly entrenched than ever.
So let's take bets: Will we all starve? Will we all drown in shit? Or will we overthrow capitalism?
you are absolutely right.
some will starve, some will die from a polluted ecosystem, many of the rich will use our wealth to insulate ourselves from the eco-threats. if we're smart [and i fear we may not have the wisdom to act appropriately] we'll overthrow or highly regulate capitalism.
i oscillate between optimism and fear.
"Mr. Chavez pushed through a new constitution in 1999, shortly after he was first elected. He said the charter must be redrafted so that Venezuela's capitalist system 'finishes dying' to make way for socialism."
no wonder i like this guy.
from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070816.wvenezchavez0816/BNStory/International/
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