Idea of progress

Thèmes abordés

Idea of progress, progress, consumerism, pollution, Freegans, hyper-consumerism

Résumé du document

Progress is going forwards, increasing, improving. The notion of progress is a modern idea opposed to the stability which dominated in the past. Throughout History, most of the advances have been positive, they improved our lifestyle such as the invention of the washing machine or the dishwasher and even allowed us to increase our life expectancy with the discovery of new vaccines and antibiotics. However, the rhythm of progress seems to have accelerated over the last few decades and led us to a consumer and materialistic society.

Extraits

[...] As we continue to consume at an ever increasing rate, the planet suffers from an over extraction of resources. In addition, increased consumption creates pollution and waste: air, land and water get more and more polluted and toxic. There is also an unfair distribution of wealth in our world. Over- consumers are not the ones suffering from the consequences of their over- consumption. This picture from CNN depicts an Indian teenager sitting in a boat, in completely polluted river. The wated is hardly perceivable, it is a river of garbage. [...]

[...] Freegans Reacting to hyper-consumerism, uniformity and wastage, freegans are setting up new systems to build a sustainable society. Most of the people tend to buy without a shopping list and so they often buy what they want and not what they need. As far as food is concerned, we usually buy more food than we will actually eat. Eating what is in the fridge before buying new products would be a first step to take. But freegans go further. Their principle is to buy as little as possible and to recycle as much as possible. [...]

[...] Many of them are well educated, articulated people and were high flying achievers, but they decided to give everything up to try to save the world from its waste and materialism. Conclusion To conclude, the development of large shopping malls, advertisements and the internet contribute to create a consumer society, where people are materialistic and eternally dissatisfied. Thus the progress is not always a complete improvement. In this case, consumption creates an addiction and a modern enslavement. However, some resistance has emerged and promote a more respectful approach to consumption and try to ave our environment which is sinking in the over-pollution we encourage. [...]

[...] Idea of progress Progress is going forwards, increasing, improving. The notion of progress is a modern idea opposed to the stability which dominated in the past. Throughout History, most of the advances have been positive, they improved our lifestyle such as the invention of the washing machine or the dishwasher and even allowed us to increase our life expectancy with the discovery of new vaccines and antibiotics. However, the rhythm of progress seems to have accelerated over the last few decades and led us to a consumer and materialistic society. [...]