Preview

A Short History Of Progress By Ronald Wright

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
315 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Short History Of Progress By Ronald Wright
Author Ronald Wright is billed as an historian and novelist. An archeology major, Wright seems drawn to history as he attempts to educate readers about the past and its connection to the present and our future in his book, A Short History of Progress. Despite the title, Wright’s purpose is to show his audience that, like the ancient civilizations, we are doomed to extinction unless we can create sustainability. He creates a dramatic and fear-inducing tone to convey to readers the idea that progress is dangerous and unless we learn to tame it, we are all doomed to extinction.
Wright opens by identifying progress as a myth, “Our practical faith in progress has ramified and hardened into an ideology—a secular religion which, like the religions

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    David Christian, This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing, 2009; 120 pp. $14.95 (paperback) When asked to give a brief explanation of how the world was shaped, many historians will usually struggle and will only explain the history of a specific area. However, Christian’s This Fleeting World not only explains how the world became as it is today, but how humanity survived and societies united.…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Do you agree that you can tell if kids will be a successful contributing adults from when they are teenagers? Developmental Assets are good qualities a kid can posses to have a good successful future for himself. A search Institute have identified these assets to make a healthy developing life. In the novel The Pigman by Paul Zindel we notice that the protagonist John doesn't have many assets.Although some might say John will grow up to be a successful and contributing adult because he has Positive Peer Influence. John won't grow up to be a successful and contributing adult because positive Family Support, and Learning engagement.…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Considering the whole span of earthly time…only within the briefest moments has one species – man – acquired significant power to alter the nature of the world. This power has now increased to one of disturbing magnitude.” (Rachael Carson)…

    • 1059 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “America’s ‘Oh Sh*t!’ Moment”, written by Niall Ferguson, a historian who teaches at Harvard University, in 2011, explores why civilizations collapse, and how America can avoid this. He does not focus only on America, but many civilizations in the past that have collapsed. Niall Ferguson is the author of Civilization: The West and The Rest. The article is creatively and cleverly written using the metaphor of modern technology to describe the way in which the societal collapse occurs. This shows that the article was written for adults who are highly educated and understand and relate to technology. The article discusses the possibilities of what complete collapse would look like in American society. I believe the author successfully demonstrates and explains the very real possibility of America’s societal demise.…

    • 1083 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The environmentalist, Bill McKibben, author of “Deep Economy,” argues that we are currently living through an ecological crisis. He states that the three main reasons why our environment is in a climacteric situation is because political intervention isn’t helpful, we have exceeded our resources and the things we produce are no longer making us happy. He altercates that people invest on things and construct the greatest innovations despite the fact that it no longer satisfies their needs. McKibben asserts that we have surpassed the barrier that was available for our resources which induced us to jeopardizing our future generations. However, Mckibben does not emphasize who the people are and how they individually and collectively affect the…

    • 189 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everyone has their own view of the world around us. Some may think that is the most precious thing ever, others may believe it to be filled with dolts. However, while there are many opinions in between those two extremes, only people of color can truly understand what is like to live in the world of an African American and see “Our Time” through John Edgar Weidman's eyes. They do not get the luxury to see how amazing the world around us can be because people are always trying to bring them down. This may be why I related to this piece so much. Even though I am not a direct descendent of African Americans, somewhere in my mixed up jumble of a family tree is African roots. Still, it may also be because they inspire me. Unlike may of us they don’t let society dictate what they can and cannot do or say. They follow their own set of rules and make their own way. However, it may also be because as I read on I continue to relate to Weidman more…

    • 2209 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Oryx and Crake

    • 1224 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The human species has defined itself as one driven towards consumption and exploitation of natural resources. Our rapid evolutionary success and our seemingly relentless appetite for advancement, and utilization, have developed many associated problems, one such problem being the issue of reality. For the purpose of this essay, reality will be defined as “The state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them” and consumption shall be defined as “the action of using up a resource” (Oxford University Press). Population growth rates are remaining stagnant globally, and in the United States there’s has been a decline of a mere three hundredth percent, as released by the World Bank in two thousand eleven. (World Bank Statistics Center) Adding to our success, since the industrial revolution life expectancy rates have increased exponentially. (Silvers, Desnoyers, and Stow 802) As a result we are consuming resources at a rate that is not renewable, or feasible for the future. It is plausible that we will have to rely on scientific advancement to sustain our species. The novel, Oryx and Crake, written by Margaret Atwood, displays the aftermath of these events as an overpopulated earth advances to meet our needs. In this essay I will examine how human consumption could create a world of false reality, as developed in the main theme of the novel, Oryx and Crake.…

    • 1224 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The subjects of progress and growth are often confused to be the same thing, but if anyone would know the difference between them, it’d be someone with more than enough experience with both of them such as G.K Chesterton. Chesterton was raised in London where he was well-educated and had the opportunity of pursuing his passions in art and writing. An advocate for the common man, he wrote hundreds of woks and contributed them to magazines and newspapers. Chesterton was met with many opportunities to progress and grow in his life, thereby validating his insight on the subjects. In his essay, “Fancies vs. Fads”, he defines progress as a “fatal metaphor” that entails “leaving things behind” and growth as a “real idea” that means “leaving things inside us” and claims that progress makes growth more difficult to understand. I agree that such…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This Fleeting World

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In writing this book, David Christian's intention was to enlighten people on how far mankind has come in all of its aspects. Aside from the many events of history that Christian left out,…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    There seems to be a widespread view of a bleak future for the human kind today as we are bombarded with information that makes us feel as if we are unquestionably turning our planet into an inhabitable rock for future generations. Matt Ridley, although not the only optimist on this planet, has a more encouraging outlook on our future as a species as he writes in his latest book The Rational Optimist. The author, with a strong background in science and who has written books relating to evolution, genetics and human nature, is now trying to persuade us with a rather enthusiastic prose that we are not headed for darker ages. In fact, things are looking up and we should not worry too much about current issues such as overpopulation, global warming and depletion of resources because technological advancements will eradicate most if not all our problems.…

    • 1534 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Antopocene Pros And Cons

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages

    After participating in class for the past few weeks my interpretation of the Anthropocene is that it is a slow and complex environmental “accident” that took a lot of human effort to create in a short amount of time, for the consideration of how long humans have been on this earth. The Anthropocene is a debated name and topic for those who are interested in this field of study, the reason why it is debated is because some researchers and scientists would like to believe that civilization as a whole is still in the Holocene period in which there is a significant change on the planet but not enough to consider it a new period, the Anthropocene. With this significant change come multiple debates among countries on how to handle such change on…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Over the course of history, humans have had a huge impact on the environment ranging from climatic changes, endangerment of certain species, and pollution of planet Earth. The drive of society to improve the standards of living have resulted in technological advances that to a certain extent have simplified our life; however, the toll it has brought upon Earth is intolerable. Veronica Perez Rodriguez & Kirk Anderson and Hazel Delcourt have addressed the issue on how our predecessors actions have affected them and our life on the long run. Through the practices of archeology, paleoecology, and paleoethnobotany our understanding of present environmental changes have allowed us to understand the desire of our ancestors to aim for such changes.…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the course of time, technology will soon take over if it is not controlled. “By the Waters of Babylon”, written by Stephen Vincent Benét, tells the story of a young member of the Hill People who has been curious about the ancient civilization before him. Benét is trying to get the message out to his readers that mankind is becoming so dependent on technology and machines that they will soon destroy themselves, It also creates a disturbing view on what was going to happen to mankind if they continued to let technology run their lives. With his pessimistic view on what he thinks will happen in the future, he believes that with doing the little things here and there, it is what will end humanity.…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    As the human race ‘evolves’ and progresses it has created an environment unsuitable for the generations to come. This Darwinist environment promotes the ideals of a ‘dog-eat-dog’ world, in which one person’s ambitions are more important than another human being’s. People strive for the ideal life in which money is not an issue, so the matter of living comfortably is not a problem. To live comfortably is an idea of life without worry of matters such as starving, fiscal responsibility, and /or shelter. In order to achieve this life without worry, many people have progressed in their businesses and technologies further improving the civilization, but at the cost of the environment around them.…

    • 892 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Part I: During these two sessions, Dr. Jendian spoke about Faith in Progress. The professor explained that this ideology is when we trust that everything will get better with the time. Therefore, it leads individuals to ignore major problems such as racism and discrimination. Loewen (284) argues that, “…Americans could be persuaded to ignore the injustice of social class if they thought the economic pie kept getting bigger for all.” In addition, Dr. Jendian explained that Americans believe they are becoming more tolerant and that everything has gotten better, but that is not true. Instead, we take two steps forward and one step back when we try to improve. However, these “steps” depend on the people who are…

    • 1109 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays