The Myth of Progress: Toward a Sustainable Future

The Myth of Progress

91 5 THE MYTH OF PROGRESS A Need for Cultural Change “[I] attribute the social and psychological problems of modern society to the fact that society requires people to live under conditions radically different from those under which the human race evolved.” —The Unabomber1 “The more materialistic values are at the center of our lives, the more our quality of life is diminished.” —Tim Kasser2 A Hierarchy of Progress In 1978 Marcia and I started building our house by cutting, hauling, and barking one hundred white pine trees from our property.These pines were used to build our scribe-fitted log home. The two-story saltbox has a passive solar design, with interior thermal mass from the log walls and a large central brick fireplace to capture and hold the sun’s heat.We use a stove to complement solar heating and burn, on average , three cords of wood a year. Our kitchen stove, water heater, and backup space heater run on propane. We have thirty acres of woodland that take up more carbon dioxide in photosynthesis than Marcia and I release from the burning of wood and propane annually. In this regard our environmental THE MYTH OF PROGRESS 92 footprint is pretty good, but we are far from minimalists as environmental practitioners. We have two vehicles—a four-wheel-drive truck and a Toyota Echo. We have two computers and printers—an iMAC and the Macintosh we bought in 1989.By all standards the older Macintosh is obsolete, but I wrote my first book on this computer,and it still works.I can’t bring myself to get rid of it. So I use it whenever I write letters or small documents that I need to print.We have a television that gets no reception , so it is used with aVCR.We have a CD player and radio for music and news.We have a washing machine, but not a drier since we hang clothes to dry. In the kitchen we have a refrigerator, a toaster, a blender, an electric crock-pot, and an electric coffee grinder. I also have a chain saw, a radial-arm saw, a skill saw, a jigsaw, a router, and an electric drill. Marcia, who enjoys yard work, has a lawn mower. Other than lights, the only other electronics that we have are a ceiling fan to circulate air and our water pump.We don’t have a cell phone or answering machine for our phone. We have been pretty conscious about our purchases, particularly of items that consume energy, yet compared to a vast majority of people on this planet we are extremely affluent and our material possessions allow us to live a life of comfort and ease. Even my grandparents, if they were alive today, would be in awe of some of these items—two cars,two computers , aVCR, a CD player! These possessions are clear indicators of what I call material progress. There is no doubt that as a culture we have witnessed material progress that has increased convenience, extended life expectancy, and dramatically expanded communication and information sharing. Most of the indicators used to support our reigning paradigm of progress relate to materialism.Yet, A Need for Cultural Change 93 I believe that materialism is much too limited an indicator with which to mark progress. Much more important trends of progress relate to the physical well-being of citizens, their emotional well-being, and community well-being—what Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone labels social capital.Together all form a hierarchy of progress. Community well-being occurs when citizens make personal sacrifices to help people, and even non-human organisms , that lie outside their circle of family and friends.They are helping directly those they wouldn’t otherwise have contact with in their daily activities.A society in which most of its citizens engage in this kind of benevolent activity has truly progressed. Individuals who engage in community outreach have expanded their emotional sensitivities to encompass a much larger sphere than just those they know. I recently heard a short commentary on Vermont Public Radio by a University of Vermont student.Rather than heading south to a sunbathed beach for spring break,she spent her time in a city she had never visited before to help the homeless .This young woman truly displays an expansive compassion for less privileged people that radiated far beyond her own community to...