Does the modern world need a mindset shift on 鈥榩rogress鈥�?
Human progress is assumed to be a good thing; countless peoples and cultures seek it. But what if the unrelenting pursuit of progress has a massive downside? That is the provocative hypothesis advanced by British historian Samuel Miller McDonald in 鈥淧rogress: How One Idea Built Civilization and Now Threatens To Destroy It.鈥�
In an impressive recounting of history, McDonald examines how societies have interpreted the idea of 鈥減rogress.鈥� Time and again, one society鈥檚 progress involved the conquest of other peoples, lands, and resources.
He traces this pattern back to Mesopotamia around 3,000 B.C.E., when market economies and empires emerged. To maintain and expand their societies, the Mesopotamians organized warfare, subjugated other peoples, engaged in 鈥渋ntense ecological harvesting,鈥� and expanded their footprint.
Why We Wrote This
British historian Samuel Miller McDonald argues that ever-increasing expansion has led to looming ecological disaster. Over centuries, the pursuit of 鈥減rogress鈥� has meant the conquest of lands and peoples, and the extraction of natural resources. By challenging our concept of progress, he explains, we can see a path toward undoing the environmental damage.
The ever-increasing need to amass more territory is seen as a major factor in the downfall of these societies, he writes.
Consider Rome. Around 500 B.C.E., Romans overthrew the monarchy that had ruled their city-state and established the republic. As the boundaries of the republic expanded, they developed a large army, won battles, and captured slaves. After 500 years, they had conquered the Italian Peninsula and become an imperial power. Expansion continued, and extensive colonies were established.
Exploitation 鈥� mostly in the form of high taxes and slavery 鈥� followed conquest. Over time, economic decline, social unrest, political instability, and an inability to defend its borders led to Rome鈥檚 fall. To McDonald, it is the overexpansion and the unsustainable exploitation of its colonies that made this outcome inevitable.
The author finds similar patterns when he considers, among others, the Vikings, the Spanish conquest of the Americas, the westward expansion of the United States, fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism-Maoism. Interestingly, McDonald has far less to say about the British Empire.
The idea of 鈥減rogress鈥� became synonymous with 鈥渆conomic growth鈥� in the last century. This led societies to prioritize economic expansion and the measurement of gross domestic product as their most important social indicators. Within this system, economic growth was seen as an unalloyed positive 鈥� and the greater the growth in GDP, the better.
McDonald argues that the pressure to boost GDP has brought us to the brink of an ecological catastrophe that demands immediate and comprehensive action.
The book is both fascinating and frustrating. Fascinating because it provides a rich and broad view of history connected by one basic idea. Frustrating because the author鈥檚 political biases come to the fore when he discusses the present day. For example, he suggests that the U.S. intelligence community could be viewed as 鈥渁 terroristic force.鈥�
Also, the solutions he proposes would strike many observers as too broad and unrealistic: return millions of hectares of land 鈥渢o the people from whom they were taken鈥� (he鈥檚 talking about Native Americans and Indigenous tribes); set aside space for wildlife (including predators) and reintroduce that wildlife to urban, suburban, and rural areas; break up large farms; implement a universal basic income; and accept lower standards of growth.
McDonald does a good job laying out the ways that the pursuit of 鈥減rogress鈥� has contributed to the dire climate situation facing humankind. But even if we accept his analysis, the solutions remain elusive.聽
