At least ever since the 18th C Enlightenment, Western societies speak of "progress"as one of our specie's destinies. Once freed from the irrational age of ancient religions, humanity's intellect was now to be our passkey to relentless progress in everything we do. But wait a minute....!
Why one wonders does our enlightened humanity so relentlessly reject progress whenever it may cost something? Five examples rush to mind:
* For generations Detroit inventors have tried to patent energy-saving, even gas-less cars. Each time, the Big Three bought the rights to these innovations and locked them in some company safe, lest they upset an immensely profitable gas-guzzling culture
* For generations contractors have come up with ideas for road paving that could last four and five times as long. These idea have also been marginalized, lest there no longer be the profitable need for year-round road- building contracts
* For generations folks have had ideas about eliminating men's daily growth of beard. You guessed it -- the multi-billion-dollar Gillette Company seems to have bought up each one of those money-losng ideas
* And don't even start with the pharmaceutical industry's counter-intelligence strategies for keeping cheaper drugs off the American market
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Four arguable examples of where the Western faith in progress has sorta been marginalized. Oh, that fifth example? Here's my guess. The West once embraced the possibility of divinity, but that belief has also been marginalized. Throughout Western Europe, now inching its way westward across the Atlantic. You'll have to decide for yourself whether that's progress or not...
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Not that technology isn't important, but that seems to be the only REAL place we have been making progress these days. And technology has its downsides too as we all know from info overload. America needs progress in more important areas of life!
ReplyDeleteTechnology is sometimes our obsession more than our agenda...
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