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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
slow-paced
informative
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inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
informative
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sad
slow-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This book was quite depressing to read. The point stands; we're killing the earth and humans have done this repeatedly over time.
I picked up this as part of my reading around the idea of History as progress for our scholarship program at school this year.
Wright's text tackles the key question- where are we going? His base argument is that civilisation makes the same mistakes over and over again. Wright identifies what he terms "progress traps"- actions and developments which provide short term benefits but are ultimately evolutionarily unsustainable- they are dead ends.
I thought that Wright presented this argument clearly- drawing on a number of sound examples to support this theory. In some sense, this was quite a bleak book to read. Ultimately, Wright really issues a call to arms- we must change our system or perish by it.
Wright's text tackles the key question- where are we going? His base argument is that civilisation makes the same mistakes over and over again. Wright identifies what he terms "progress traps"- actions and developments which provide short term benefits but are ultimately evolutionarily unsustainable- they are dead ends.
I thought that Wright presented this argument clearly- drawing on a number of sound examples to support this theory. In some sense, this was quite a bleak book to read. Ultimately, Wright really issues a call to arms- we must change our system or perish by it.
Worth the price of admission for the passages on Easter Island and the background on how progress has been sold as a good and is most likely a not-good when considering the role of humans in progress.
The point is a good one, but this is no place to look for accurate portrayals of old civilizations. Wright's account of Easter Island is a contested one, and his underlying thesis, that all civilizations rise and fall in similar ways, may be undercut by the emphasis which he places on that account. The truth of these examples, though, should not distract from the importance of his call to action.