Essay #2
Problems in Sociology
Matthew Lewis
Progress Trap
The documentary ‘Progress Trap’ illustrates a concept within the human condition in which what we as a society may perceive as ‘progress’ is actually a deadly feedback loop that acts counter intuitively to our biological and evolutionary advancement. The film uses the example of early humans that were so advanced at hunting mammoths that they were actually able massively diminish the population of mammoth, which in turn, hurt their societal prerogative. The point is that what the early hunter-gatherers perceived as an advantage or ‘progress’ was actually their downfall. The film draws parallels between the hunter-gatherers and our current financial system, mainly consisting of, you guessed it, banking and finance; the two things that seem to be at the root of almost all modern social issues in my opinion. The film argues that the ferocious lending strategies and foreign investments are consequence of a cultural zeitgeist that seeks to create more consumers and capital at any cost and will in turn push our planet and our societies to the brink of destruction for the benefit of a few plutocrats and oligarchs.
The documentary presents an argument that I find myself agreeing with, however, the culprit is never named and even in other influential spheres of discussion the culprit is touted as something that in inevitable or even as having positive effects on our societies and planet. The main culprit I believe is globalism. Globalism is nothing more than international capitalism, a global oligarchy, an international clique where the financial systems like the IMF, The World Bank, 99% of central banks(#EndTheFED), and the majority of corporations and capital answer to only a few select people who believe the earth and it’s peoples are their inheritance.
But what I found the most interesting was the contradicting ideals of this globalist initiative and some of the things we talked about in class. In class we talk a lot about the state of poorer countries and how we can, simply put, increase their level of society to something more modern, a noble cause indeed. In class, we also talk about the wealth divide between the 1% and the rest of the world. And here my issue with these...
