Progress of Civilization - Surviving Progress Documentary

This essay discusses the progress traps and downfall of human race as depicted in the documentary Surviving Progress. It talks about the impact of civilization, progress of farming, and Victorian ideal of progress. The essay also mentions the Easter Islanders and Viking settlers whose civilization collapsed due to overutilization of natural resources.

Running head: PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION
Progress of Civilization
Name of the student
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Author note

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Surviving Progress is the name of a documentary film of Canada that was directed by
Harold Crooks along with Mathieu Roy that was based on the book called A Short History of
Progress. The movie talks about the effect of the civilization in the present age that includes
impact of the concentrated wealth (Jablonowski, pp 1222). The movie talks about the fact that
present strategy pertaining to economic growth has no connection with that of the real world.
In the “Short History of Progress” Wright has presented critique pertaining to progress and he
has provided warnings about the current civilization. Wright has stated that civilization acts
like pyramid scheme that borrows from future. The essay talks about the progress traps that
has been discussed by Ronald Wright. The essay talks about the Easter Islanders and the
Viking settlers whose civilization collapsed due to the overutilization of the natural resources.
The essay also states how the Victorian ideal of the progress conceals the fact that civilization
is in middle of biggest trap of the human history. The essay argues that the progress brought
about in the civilization acts as a trap that would ultimately bring about the downfall of the
human race.
Wright felt that benefit of the progress was overrated owing to the huge cost that
society had to incur because of it. He believed that progress was acting like a threat for that of
existence of the mankind. According to Wright, the new age would enter the age of the chaos
that would belittle the dark ages of past. Progress brings forth the idea that the next stage
would be better that can help in serving the society (Nisbet, pp 67). Wright believed in the
fact that the progress can in due course of time become a bad idea that can bring disaster for
the society. The progress trap had been laid due to the fact that the hunters who had
succeeded in killing two mammoths in place of a single one had laid the stage for progress
but ironically they had also set the stage for disaster of the earth. Hunting, in the words of
Wright acts as an illusion that can deter the real progress of the earth. Wright has tried to

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convey by making use of the symbol of hunting that the human beings are borrowing from
future thus jeopardizing the future of the earth.
The climate trends were unstable in the previous era and hence it could not facilitate
farming. Climate has however become stable in last 10,000 years and that has propelled the
growth of the farming. Farming however in due course of time gave birth to practices that
would prove to be detrimental for preserving the balance on the earth. In the ancient times, it
seemed that the food of the high quality was infinite (Natarajan, pp 154). Farming hence
became a progress trap that was indirectly have a negative influence on the human race.
Agriculture acted like a progress trap and the civilizations that were based on agriculture
could be destroyed in a drought or in a natural disaster.
Ronald Wright has stated that world is becoming full with ruins of the ancient sites
and the civilizations were proving themselves to be self-destructive (Conrad, pp 90). Benefits
that the society get because of innovation encourages the society to live in a particular
manner but at the same time society gets trapped within the unsustainable way of the living.
Wright has talked about the fact that “The Fall” is taking place in the event of the human
beings starting to domesticate the plants and the animals. It has been found that most of the
kind of progress disrupts balance pertaining to the ecosystem (Diamond, pp 56). The present
day civilization have created a new age where the people are busy communicating by
“furiously typing” and engaging in the profound discussions.
Ronald Wright has talked about various civilizations that collapsed due to the
progress of the civilization. Easter Islanders found resources that can be easily exploited like
the low entropy resources. Easter Islanders found the large trees and the marine animals that
the people used to hunt from the wooden boats along with the volcanic soils. It has been
pointed out by Wright that Easter Islanders used up trees and they became incapable of

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catching the marine meals. Complex society that they had given rise to were dissipated and
they had been defeated owing to the increasing entropy (Tsanoff, pp 90). Easter Islanders
could not properly sustain themselves and this cost them. Another civilization that declined
was the Viking settlers who settled on Iceland. They did not have the natural advantage of the
warm climate of the Easter Islands. The volcanoes erupted under the glaciers that gave rise to
gigantic floods that made the island a dangerous place pertaining to the human civilization
(Malinowski, pp 43). Vikings were instrumental in chopping down the trees that helped in the
prevention of regeneration. The wild erosion was responsible for exposing the top soil into
that of the Atlantic Ocean.
The lessons that can be drawn from the work of Ronald Wright is that the progress of
the civilization acts like a trap that is actually detrimental for the development of the human
race. It seems apparently that the world is making advancements but actually the world is
declining and is on the verge of extinction (Pickus, pp 53). Ronald Wright has expressed the
view that the human beings perfected the hunting tools along with the techniques that drove
prey into the stage of extinction. It reveals the debt that the human beings have to nature and
how the human beings have to bear the negative consequences of their actions. The activities
that the human beings undertake paves the way for the environmental along with the political
calamities. It talks about the high price that the human beings have to pay for carrying out the
actions that they undertake on the earth. The human beings started to take the best advantage
of the nature and this in turn paved the way for the destruction of the natural habitat and the
civilization.
The Victorian age is associated with the new inventions and rise of machines. The
Victorian age saw the emergence of locomotion, iron along with the steel ships that helped
them in triumphing over the element of distance. Victorian ideal of the progress is related
with the element of industrialism, urbanization along with transport. There was the

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prevalence of the idea of technological determinism in the Victorian age and it stated the fact
that science can change the world with the help of invention along with implementation.
Advancement was made in the arena of technology that was matched by the development in
relation to social thought. There was the emergence of the element of modernism in the
Victorian age that symbolised the Victorian ideal of the progress (Nisbet, pp 67).These high
opinions about the advancement of science and technology in the Victorian age obscured the
fact that civilization was in the middle of biggest progress trap within the human history. The
importance that was laid on the aspect of the inventions and that of technology proved to be
detrimental on the other hand for the progress of the mankind. It had negative influence on
the overall environment and it was injurious for the growth of the society in the long run. The
biggest trap was laid on account of the fact that it blinded the people and made them believe
in the idea of progress when actually it would lead to their destruction. The improvements
brought about in the modern world with the help of technology would pave the way for the
destruction of the human race. It would bring about the downfall of the human race and the
world would gradually turn out to be a place that would not be able to support the human
race. The ideal of progress of the Victorian age thus went against the idea of welfare of the
society.
Wright was of the opinion that benefits in the society that can be brought about by
progress would make society pay a huge cost. Progress of the mankind would act like a threat
for the survival of the human race. The new age would become chaotic that would undermine
dark age of the past. Climate has become stable in the last years that can propel growth of
farming. Farming would pave the way for practices that would not be able to preserve
balance on earth. The world has the ruins of the ancient sites and civilizations in the present
age are becoming self-destructive. There are benefits that the society can enjoy due to
innovation but at the same time society is trapped in that of unsustainable manner of living.

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Easter Islanders found the resources that can be easily used that ultimately created the way
for the destruction of this civilization. The civilization of the Viking settlers were destroyed
because of the gigantic floods that was instrumental in destroying their civilization. Victorian
age saw the birth of new inventions along with that of rise of the machines. Opportunities
evolved in relation to locomotion and steel ships in the Victorian age that was able to triumph
over the factor of distance. There was modernism in Victorian age that was indicative of
progress taking place in the age. There were advancement made in the arena of science along
with technology that hid the fact that civilization was caught in a big trap in that of human
history. Emphasis being given on inventions along with technology was hindering the
progress of the human race and the mankind. Improvements of modern world would destroy
the human race and bring about the downfall of mankind. The world would become a place
that would not be able to support human race.

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References
Conrad, Joseph. An outpost of progress. Charles River Editors via PublishDrive, 2018.
Diamond, Stanley. In search of the primitive: A critique of civilization. Routledge, 2017.
Jablonowski, Mark. "Surviving progress: managing the collective risks of
civilization." Journal of Risk Research 18.10 (2015): 1221-1229.
Malinowski, Bronislaw. Freedom and civilization. Routledge, 2015.
Natarajan, Ashok. "Human Attitudes that Prevent the Advance of Human Progress and
Civilization." Cadmus 3.3 (2017): 154-163.
Nisbet, Robert. History of the Idea of Progress. Routledge, 2017.
Pickus, David. "What do Students Need to Know? How About the Idea of
Progress?." Paradigma, Jurnal Kajian Budaya 2.1 (2016): 53-64.
Tsanoff, Radoslav A. Civilization and progress. University Press of Kentucky, 2015.