Surviving Progress (2011)

Looking for a good Disney movie instead?

In 'Surviving Progress' The world environment is being destroyed due to poor economic and political management and it could be that (wo)man has outsmarted it self through what it thinks is progress. Enticing buffaloes down a ravine to their deaths was progress from slaughtering one or two at a time but in the end was too efficient as it eliminated the native's very source for living. The world is heading that way too only in a bigger scale.
Surviving this doco without committing hari-kari? somewhat trying. Watching this after a nice day is one sure way to bring anyone down.Though the various arguments presented here are self evident and we in the rich western world know very well our rich lifestyles are screwing the planet I came away feeling the authors offered no real solution. They say stop consuming so much! We (in the rich west) can all do with less. Less air-cond, less food, less televisions, etc etc. Right, but will my neighbour do that? If we all did then that should do the trick but how do you get everybody to do that?. There are no plans offered in this doco. The planet is already stuffed anyway, given the eight or nine billion people in it, most of whom live in poverty and depend on the trickle down effect from the wealthy nations. Unless of course you're in China where you would just go back to your rice paddy. The capitalist system has infected the whole world, including the major old socialist countries with China at the helm of the lot. The economists teach a brand of economics that doesn't take into account the pre-existing capital, clean water, the oil. good soils, etc, which props up the system and is now rapidly eroding away. David Suzuki pronounced the current crop of economics ideas as non scientific and 'nuts'. But is anyone listening? No. I remember as far back as the seventies Herbert W Armstrong pontificating against the evils of consumerism and the ill-respect for mother earth. Even the hippies in the sixties who advocated a return to simpler lifestyles eventually went back to the smoke and the comforts that is killing us. No, its all too depressing. After closing our eyes and going headlong into the hedonistic lifestyle, we now see pretty plainly all the signs that the planet is in trouble. But the global socio-economic system has unified so that when plundering the earth is either not possible because it no longer offers any reserves or the climate contributes to the mess with extreme weather, its all going to get...well, interesting. Even Stephen Hawking sounds like he's given up and is booking a ticket to migrate to an extraterrestrial world. Is that possibility sooner than we think? Well even in cattle-class in that spaceship I wouldn't be able to afford it. Please stop! I'm going to watch a bit of Disney.