Price of Progress

This reminds me of the same theme in the work by Jared Diamond and others in regards to our modern lifestyle vs a tribal and traditional lifestyle. So we can see that the foods we consider normal are just as bad for people who are not used to them as they are for people who are habituated to them. Is it right or wrong? Of course we wil all agree that doing these things to groups is wrong, yet what can we do about it? Not much. These multinational corporations are beholden to no one (ostensibly they are responsible to their stockholders) except the CEO's who are paid 1000 times the amount of the lowest paid worker, and this is in the USA! SO these multinational corporations are effectively becoming their own countries which are not bound by the same laws as the regular companies in a country and hold no allegance to any country.

Price of Progress

Would we be here if progress didn't happen? well probably but we would be living in the woods and forging for berries. Instead of reading about how humans have messed up everything, and blogging about it. With out progress we would not have IPhones or the Internet but we also would not have a hole in the ozone layer or global warming. The thing that amazed me about this article is that our health has gotten worse and we have bad teeth because of progress and the invention of agriculture. This article also ties into the movie we just watched on Africa and how most of Europe just crapped on its native people. I as a ignorant American had no idea what African history was about. I guess this is the price of progress, and I guess it is up to us and future generations to make progress a positive thing.

The Price is Right? Wrong!

Ok. Let me get this straight. Europeans have gone into tribal lands, taken away their traditions, changed their diets, introduced new diseases and cut down their forrests and now they are not better off?? NO WAY!! I would have no idea!
Hello. Obviously anytime you overtake a people (traditions, land, rituals, food, resources, etc.) you are practicing ethnocentrism at its finest. Nothing good can ever come of this. Wait, let me rephrase this. Nothing good for the majority of the world can come from this. For the power elite few, however, this is a dream come true for several reasons. First, they have drawn more people into their capitalism slavery machine. More people working their asses off to bring them more money while practically starving, trying to eek out a living off their weager wages. Second, they are driving tribal people off their lands to gain more property. Third, they are stealing their resources to use as they desire, in whatever way will suit them best. Lastly, they are simply killing them off with diseases previously unknown to them before the Europeans took over.
So, what we learn is this model:
1. Use your power to take over entire tribes.
2. Teach them how to make money for you.
3. Tax them to take back some of the money you have to give them for working for you.
4. Take their land for yourself.
5. Take their resources to do with as you wish.
6. Destroy their traditions at their very core so that it will be impossible in the future for them to band together and rise up against you.
7. After you have taken absolutely everything you can from them, rendering them useless, unleash some deadly diseases on them and get rid of them altogether.
8. Welcome any survivors to the world of progress.
Sound familiar?

Jennifer Lucero

Going along with someone else said about the killer disease, this is pretty scary stuff. With all the precautions we take to prevent illness, it could actually making things worse for us in the long run. What if there comes a point in time when all of our hand washing and whatnot doesn't work anymore? What if we all become immune to the vaccinations in which work now? This is all serious stuff that is a concern in our reality.

Price of Progress

Progress has a price. Personally, I would rather live in a jungle and forage for food without access to electronics. I hate how our society is dependant on technology to do everything these days. You can’t even register for college without creating about 15 different accounts and passwords and filling out hundreds of forms online. Whatever happened to in-person meetings? Another thing about progress that bothers me is how many different gadgets people have these days. It’s like everybody has to have an ipod and a laptop and 3 emails and an iphone, etc. ipods are nice, but a live concert is so much more valuable. Are standards of civilization are going down, and with it our health, because of agriculture. Easy access to food doesn’t mean access to quality food. Most of the stuff we get is processed junk. As regards the decline of our health, I can testify to that. My grandpa has about two real teeth left. The rest have fallen out or decayed because of the food he has had access to. If we were expected to gather our own food, we would take more care in eating healthy and natural food. We should have left Africa alone. They have got the idea on how to live. Why don’t we learn from them instead of trying to teach them our ways, which are clearly wrong?

The Price of Progress

I find articles like this one and the previous article about how we automatically assume that certain events in history were the best thing to happen to us while we ignore the negative effects. I find it interesting when people challenge what we believe to be common sense and have a real argument that makes clear sense. I may not agree with the authors, but I do admit to being entertained by what they have to say. This article like the article "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race" talked about things that I am familiar with and have heard of before. This makes it easier for me to understand and see their point. I am the most familiar with the argument about disease. I've heard that there are supervirus being created with all the chemicals we use to kill germs and disease. By using more and stronger antibacterial handwash we force bad germs to evolve into things that are resistant. Soon there will be supergerms that can't be killed by anything. Also I've heard that eventually obsesive handwashing with chemicals can lead to a weakening in a person's immune system. That can also lead to people being able to get sick easier even if they are infected by just a normal germ that a normal person would not be affected by. I'm not saying that its bad to wash your hands, but just don't go overboard.

Price of Progress

I think that no matter how you try to rationalize the progress of something it will always have its downfalls. This article show that very well. What is progress for one person is a disadvantage for another, its all perspective. With the growth of a society diseases will also grow and become more hazardous. People do not want to accept the fact that their idea of progress can harm others instead of bringing them a higher “standard of living”. Its like they all just forgot that there cant be a higher or upper class with a high standard of living without a lower class with a lower standard of living. Some places are indeed better off without our standards being imposed upon them.