Analysis Of Ronald Wright’S Perspectives On Progress, And Its Effect On Civilization
Through the specialization of the human brain, people have unlocked an unlimited potential that has led to significant progression which is sometimes self-destructive. According to Ronald Wright, the progression is not always a good thing and civilization is potentially objectionable. Wright argues that people have become victims of the own specializations and progress is not necessarily beneficial to the human being. Wright categorizes progress as “real progress” and “progress traps” which are two unique entities that affect people. The advancements of human beings have consequences and it is the outcome that determines whether the progress was beneficial or detrimental. This paper describes Wright’s perspectives on real progress, progress traps, and civilization. Secondly, the essay will analyze Victorian ideal of progress and how such ideology has affected our perception of civilization.
According to Wright, the main difference between real progress and progress trap is the benefits it brings to the society. The effects of real progress are positive to human life, whereas progress traps have negative outcomes to the society. Real progress can also become progress trap where the positive effects of progress become negative. For example, the introduction of the gunpowder concept by the Chinese was a real progress which became a progress trap when the gunpowder was used in war. An example of the most severed progress trap is the invention of the atomic bomb which is capable of annihilating the entire human race. Wright also describes real progress as a political integration which can only be realized through a considerable linguistic implication. Progress traps, on the other hand, are the situations that the society experiences in times of human ingenuity progress. Progress trap tends to transform the society from a state of shrewdness to unruliness. In most cases, progress traps begin with desirable outcomes which eventually become detrimental. For instance, during the pre-Paleolithic era, human perfected in hunting by inventing deadly hunting weapons that were capable of killing thousands of mammoths. This led to the extinction of species and depletion of food supply which became a progress trap and resulted in the insufficient food supply during the Malthusian Crisis.
Unlike real progress, progress traps are as a result of uncertainties of the consequences of the human evolution and people are unable to predict the long-term implications. According to Wright, human beings tend to focus on short-term implications thereby ignoring the long-term implications of their progress. This could explain the occurrence of the “Darwin’s Trap” where people competed for survival after having depleted the food supply during the hunting and gathering era. Real progress is evident during short-term inventions while progress traps occur later after a long term. For instance, the invention of farming during the beginning of the Neolithic era was a real progress which was associated with the domestication of agricultural plants in all continents with an exception of Antarctica. The invention became a progress trap in the long-term after human over-relied on farming thereby becoming vulnerable to natural disasters such as blight and drought. This illustrates that real progress is associated with short-term implications while after a long-term, the effects become progress traps.
According to Wright, real progress and progress traps can be differentiated based on their scale of occurrence. A real progress occurs on a reasonable scale while a progress trap is usually related to unreasonable scale. For instance, during the Paleolithic period, the Cro-Magnon hunters who developed weapons and skills to kill two huge mammoths accomplished a real progress. However, when the deadly weapons were used on a large scale to kill over a thousand mammoths, the advancement eventually became a progress trap. The large-scale hunting and consumption of meat led to a progress trap which depleted the available food supply. Real progress can, therefore, be perceived as a success which is manageable while uncontrolled victory is associated with progress trap.
Additionally, while real progress is to be celebrated, progress trap calls for solutions to addressing the negative effects. When there is a real progress, there is no need to focus on the effects, unlike progress traps which create challenges that need to be addressed. According to Wright, the challenges that result from progress traps can only be addressed through more additional progress. People have abilities to create solutions to the problems that they created themselves. However, addressing a progress trap requires people to be innovative, creative, and rational. Wright suggests that solutions to progress traps can only be achieved when people change their behavior and develop long-term reasoning.
According to Wright, Civilization is a pyramid scheme which thrives at the expense of an unequal growth of some people or region. In other words, the accumulation of wealth and prosperity of a certain central point of growth is what results in civilization. The central point of growth can represent a boundary between trading and political territory or an invasion of a territory where wealth is garnered through the exploitation of resources. This result to crises at the peak of civilization when all resources have been exploited and no more wealth or energy sources are there to exploit. The lack of resources to sustain civilization may lead to reduced productivity and instability due to natural fluctuations. In such scenario, more loans from humanity and nature will be required to sustain civilizations yet present great risks. For example, the failure of civilization is associated with natural calamities such as soil erosion, crop failure, drought and famine which increase human suffering. Additionally, Wright argues that civilization as a pyramid scheme can be hard to recover after a decline in its growth and in the end; it succumbs to its success.
Wright also perceives civilizations as a pyramid scheme for the reason that it eventually results in progress traps which have objectionable implications to the society. Wright observes that the human civilization in hunting skills led to a progress trap in which many animal species such as the woolly rhino in Asia and Europe were completely wiped out. During the civilization of Africa, people learned about the existence of huge animals which could be a source of food and wealth. The perfection of hunting skills and the demand for animal skin, ivory, horns and other animal products led to large-scale hunting which resulted to the extinction of some animal species and the depletion of the food supply. Once the animal products were depleted in one continent, people would drive civilization to other continents resulting in massive hunting. It is the civilization that made people consider the huge mammoths as serial kill and eventually a progress trap occurred.
In addition, wright holds that civilization is a pyramid scheme due to its influence and control in making people highly reliant on geology. The civilized society learned about farming and domestication of agricultural crops. Since the invention of farming in 5000 B. C, the modern civilized society still thrives on domesticated crops. Civilization in farming resulted in more food, more people but never led to the nourishment and betterment of people’s lives. Instead, people became more reliant on the geological substrate in the production of food. Additionally, the water as the geological delivery system became a priority in sustaining farm crops. People also increased their dependence on other geological resources such fertilizers and fuel in order to sustain farming. Civilization has led to an increased demand for land for farming and settling and people are slowly encroaching forests and grasslands leading to adverse effects such as deforestation, soil erosion, exhaustion of natural resources and overall loss of biodiversity. This parasitic encroachment is a challenge to the existence of civilization and unless reforms are made, it will be difficult to sustain the civilization.
The focus of civilization on short-term effects instead on the long-term benefits makes it more like a pyramid scheme. For instance, civilization may make a small shopping Centre develop into a big city which has short-term benefits but after some time, the city encroaches good farming and economical land which was previously occupied by the village. Such growth may be prevented before it happens but reversing the effects of civilization may be difficult since it might not be possible to demolish a city. Civilizations limit the ability of people to predict long-term implications and leaves people in situations that they are not comfortable with.
The Victorian ideal progress alludes to the supposition that a particular pattern of change occurs in the history of human and encompasses irrevocable changes that are associated with improvement only. According to the Victorian ideal progress model, people need to comprehend that some changes inhibit their abilities and they should be ready for the inevitable. The Victorian ideal perceives progress as an important factor in the improvement of human life. However, this model has failed to explain some situations particularly the historical events and survival in the absence of the modern day ploughs, wheel, metals, machines and other tools. Moreover, the ideal endorses technological determinism which is a concept that destabilizes the cultural concepts and does not provide a clear explanation of the origin of inventions.
The Victorian ideal progress concept has promoted the ideology of ignoring the fact that civilization is a major cause of the progress traps since it perceives progress as a law of nature. In other words, the ideal perceives civilization as a natural process that embodies real progress in which each creature has distinct potential to progress. For instance, the mammals are naturally swifter as compared to reptiles and human beings are above all other creatures due to their high intelligence. However, the Victorian ideal undermines the idea that future improvements are needed to enhance progress.
Additionally, the Victorian ideal progress overlooks the civilization progress trap since it emphasizes on material progress instead of moral progress. The ideal disdains the previous ideologies of progress since its main focus is the quantifiable gains that people acquire from evolutions. For instance, the Victorian ideal considers modern weapons such as bullets to be better compared to the traditional weapons such as arrows since the bullets use advanced technology. According to the Victorian ideal, real progress is illustrated by the link between technology and social change. Moreover, the civilized people are perceived to be having better morals compared to the traditional uncivilized people.
Indeed, progress does not always have positive impacts which Wright explains by illustrating the difference between real progress and progress trap. The pyramid scheme of civilization also reinforces the fact that people need to reason out when making progress. The human beings should consider both short-term and long-term effects in order to avoid the uncertainties of progress traps.
