A Short History of Progress

A Short History of Progress

By: Ronald Wright  

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Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5

It is Wright’s contention that only by understanding and ultimately breaking from the patterns of progress and disaster that humanity has repeated around the world since the Stone Age can we avoid the onset of a new Dark Age. Wright illustrates how various cultures throughout history have literally manufactured their own end by producing an overabundance of innovation and stripping bare the very elements that allowed them to initially advance. Wright's book is brilliant; a fascinating rumination on the hubris at the heart of human development and the pitfalls we still may have time to avoid.

Description:
No hope, just an awareness of what's being done now and what's been done in the past, is what Ronald Wright will permit in A Short History of Progress, his grim, ammoniacal Massey Lectures, the 43rd in the series. In five lucid, meticulously documented essays, Wright traces the rise and plummet of four regional civilizations--those of Sumer, Rome, Easter Island, and the Maya--and judges that most, perhaps all, of humanity is making and will continue to make mistakes equally disastrous as theirs. He gives general reasons first for not reckoning we'll pull back from the brink. Important among them is an anthropological observation. As individuals, we live long lives. We evolve more slowly than we should, given our lack of vision and our aggressive, selfish nature. We seem to lack the collective wisdom and the insight into cause and effect to realize the limits to what Wright calls the "experiment" of civilization. What Wright calls natural "subsidies" underwrite civilizations' successes. The squandering of those gifts presages inevitable failure, but with careful, canny stewardship, a civilization can manage to muddle through eons. Wright cites Egypt's submission to the limits set by the Nile's annual floods and China's windblown "lump-sum deposit" of topsoil, used for hillside paddies instead of being put to the plough. Wright observes with unrelenting eloquence that our planetary civilization lives precariously, far beyond its means. "Hope drives us to invent new fixes for old messes," he acknowledges, neither claiming nor wanting to be a prophet. We certainly have the tools for change and remediation; we also know what our ancestors did wrong and what happened to them. We're faced, our author observes, with two choices: either do nothing--what he calls "one of the biggest mistakes"--or try to effect "the transition from short-term to long-term thinking." His evidence suggests we're taking the first alternative, which will include a swift, final ride into the dark future on the runaway train of progress. Wright's account tempts one to bet on the rats and roaches. --Ted Whittaker

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Fabulous commentary on rise and fall of civilizations - This is a rather short and very readable overview of all civilizations who grew in a manner to overrun the resources on which their civilization was built. Hugely prophetic of what we face today. And the realization that ALL civilizations have pushed to their destructive limits except the Nile River area and the Chinese Yellow River area which get constant renewal of fertile soil. Very sobering but powerful perspective. Highly recommended for everyone with any interest in the future of the human race !!

Customer Review: 1 out of 5
Absolute garbage for self-hating idealists - So, for those of you who love to hate humans, good news! According to this book, we all have something new to apologize for; we are all descended from Chro-Magnons, who (apparently) slowly warred with and then wiped out the gentle, peace-loving Neanderthals. I quote directly from the book: "We are at best the heirs of many ruthless victories, and at worst, the heirs of genocide." Wow. But hold on, he's not done hating on our ancient ancestors; it seems that they were wiping out species even back then, and the author refers to early hunters as "two-legged serial killers." Just because they wanted to eat?!? Seems a little harsh. I doubt they were driven by evil or the lust to kill and hurt other living things. I think hunger was the main motivator. But, that's just me with my primitive common sense.

Moving on to more modern history, this book accuses poor farming methods as being responsible for the middle east being a desert today, (hmmm.. and the 130 degree temperatures from THE SUN have nothing to do with it?) says that humans "bankrupted the land" by killing buffalo, and Europeans were "parasitic invaders" to the Americas. He FINALLY admits, on page 110, that human ability has allowed food production to increase. But don't you DARE have hope for the future! You see, according to this book, "Hope equals greed, which is fuel for capitalism." And we all know, capitalism is evil, right? He also says, "Inventing new solutions for old messes will only create worse messes." "Progress is a myth." "At least communism proposed sharing the goods." "Terrorism is a small threat compared to climate change." "Religion is a fundamentalist delusion."

So what does Mister Gloom and Doom propose we do? As usual, nothing but the usual vague platitudes. "Share resources, share medical care, spread birth control." Wow, how original. He does not directly say, but strongly implies, no more cars, no more oil, and no more modern farming methods. He heavily criticizes each of these things. So, are you ready to go back to an 1800's lifestyle? Some things I can't believe people read and still take this book seriously. "At least communism proposed sharing the goods?" Are you kidding me? I won't even comment on the economic side of this, the truth is common knowledge. Do you realize what communist governments did to the environment? And he thinks that terrorism is a small threat? Will he still think that when a terrorist group manages to set off a nuke somewhere? How much environmental damage will the fallout from that cause?

The scary thing is that this was required reading at my university. I feel sorry for people who take this stuff seriously. Not to say we don't have problems; of course we do. But self-hate and giving up all hope for the future is not the answer. If you are not required to read this book for school, I'd suggest passing it by and reading something more believable. Say, "The Weekly World News."

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Quick Study of Human History - Wow. What a fantastic, smart, accessible read. Artfully written as well. While always interested in human history, I've often responded dispassionately to books about former civilizations because the relevance felt lacking. But by comparing the progress of varying civilizations while also looking at the progress of *all* civilization, relevance screams like a siren. Wonderful book and very accessible for the average reader.

Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Each time history repeats itself, the price goes up - What is the difference between our 21st century global civilization, the ancient Sumerians, the Easter Islanders of Cook's day, empirical Rome, or the Maya civilization. Answer, not much. The last four are all societies that had their heyday, become stuck in a paradigm, and then brought ecological disaster on themselves via overpopulation and over exploitation of natural resources. "Each time history repeats itself, the price goes up", Wrights quotes from some pertinent graffiti. The cost this time could be in the billions of souls.

This a short book 132 pages of actual text with another 68 or so of footnotes at the end. It is a mad rush through human history exploring the collapse of those civilizations and a couple that have been more sustainable.

Wright also explores the traps of progress. That is mankind becomes so good at hunting he drives his food source into extinction. Then we become so proficient at an irrigation technology we ruin the land. We become so good at weapons we create bombs that could ruin the whole world. As a race, he contends, we seem to push every technology to the brink, to our collective woe.

I read with highlighter in hand. I had to restrain myself for marking whole long sections. As it is, the book now has a pink glow. Several pages have yellow tabs so I can find passages easily again. One such passage from the book summarizes it for me:

"The human inability to foresee - or to watch out for - long-range consequences may be inherent to our kind, shaped by the millions of years when we lived from hand to mouth by hunting and gathering. It may also be little more than a mix of inertia, greed, and foolishness encouraged by the shape of the social pyramid. The concentration of power at the top of large-scale societies gives the elite a vested interest in the status quo; they continue to prosper in darkening times long after the environment and general populace begin to suffer."

I remember as a biology major we studied the boom and bust cycle of animal populations. It was suggested in class that the human animal could follow the same cycle. The professor dismissed the idea, but not so Wright. He sees us at the high point in a few years, then the collapse unless we act now.

One other passage really struck home with me: "The idea that the world must be run by the stock market is as mad as any other fundamentalist delusion, Islamic, Christian, or Marxist." That tears at the very sand we have our society built on.

The sheer pace of Wright's march through history mirrors the author's urgency about how long we have to act to save our society. The countdown has already begun. The question remains, do we have the gumption to take the necessary action.

The book is at its heart liberal, and rightly so. Any possible solution to forestall the potential social collapse will not be from the top of the pyramid. They long ago seemed to have forgotten the concept of usufruct; we are just borrowing this planet from our children and grandchildren. Wright holds out a glimmer of hope, but the candle is flickering.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Will leave you with intellectual fallout of the best kind - Sometimes you see a certain movie or read a certain book and the images, ideas and issues reverberate with you for days afterward. This was one of those books for me. Wright makes every word count, just like Paul McCartney makes every note count on his bass guitar. He reviews a handfull of civilizations that have failed in the past, and warns us that we are on the same trajectory as these cultures just when they reached their apex and self-destructed. He leaves it up to the reader to judge whether we will learn, or continue to make the same mistakes. Even though these civilizations could see their resources depleting right before their eyes, and saw how their own behavior was responsible for it, they were not wise enough to change. To me this is collective insanity.

Written in over fives years ago, this book is relevant even more so today, especially with the problems that our modern societies and intensified globalization have created. There are plenty of books out there on global warming, natural resource depletion and civilizations in general. This book is an excellent bird's eye view of where we have been, where we are and where we are going.

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