Progress can impact us in negative ways
By Lethbridge Herald on October 21, 2022.
Editor:
One day, my mother’s old rotary telephone died. The new one in her room of the senior’s home was with push buttons. Mom could not handle the new gizmo though it was supposed to be easier to use. She stopped calling me at an ungodly hour like 3 a.m. I thought she had no more nightmares. However, she stopped calling her friends, too. It never occurred to me that she had a problem managing the new telephone. Then her dementia got worse because she had few connections with people.
Progress inevitably leaves some people behind. Be kind to them and do everything possible for them to make a soft landing in the new world. Change is tough for some people. They often had to give up freedom and independence they had taken for granted.
Some people get angry and join the mob, stop the traffic and storm the Capitol. They think their basic human rights were taken away. Though by definition progress is change for the better, it has a flip side. Change is good for everybody so long as we carefully and sympathetically take into account what is lost in the process. We have to give time for people to grieve the loss and adjust.
The world is changing constantly. Most of the people are happy about it; others are sort of managing; but some people are angry for having to give up familiar ways. They see the change as aggravation.
One wonders if anti-vaxers, freedom convoys, and the recent choice of leaders for Federal and Alberta Conservative Parties are the expressions of the anger toward the rapid changes.
I believe progress is good by definition. However, we have to be aware that we lose something in the process. This is not only about technology.
Publicly-funded health care is better than the pay-per-visit kind. Some people might feel nostalgic about the personal connection in the old pay-per-visit system, like the house-visit by the doctor who stayed for a cup of tea: I’m just guessing.
A vinyl record came back because some people realized we lost a certain quality of sound with digital technology. But it’s too late for the majority of people because most of the people don’t have record players. The old will not come back.
A former New York University professor Neil Postman began his book “Technopoly” with the story Socrates told his friend Phaedrus.
It was a story of a mythical Egyptian King Thamus. God of Invention Theuth came and presented the king his new invention: writing.
“No more need of memory,” he said. “Write it. It can store past events and ideas on paper.” The king disagreed: “Without memory, you will lose time to ponder what happened and what you saw. When you lose a chance to digest what’s in your memory you will have no chance to acquire wisdom.”
We normally don’t question the benefits of progress. As technology advances, we now can access any piece of information which you forgot. Just tap on the screen. We can catch up with friends instantaneously with a short text on the phone. Nuclear technology produces an enormous amount of cheap energy and can replace carbon-based fuel.
But it is extremely dangerous: it can wipe out the whole civilization when a mad man decides to push a red button.
We have made giant progress in culture, ethics, lifestyle, relationship and countless other spheres of our lives. But many people don’t think those are improvements. They think those changes are destructive and a loss of values. They will bring moral decay and existential crisis. They are angrier for being labelled irrelevant and obsolete.
I am worried about the divided humanity. Political parties became tribes. And politics is tribal warfare not the democratic process for common good. There is no room for debate and compromise. It is like a cold war.
Do not forget the flip side of “progress.” Most of the people benefit from progress, but some others feel ignored and slighted.
Progress is good provided we are aware of what we lose in the process. Those who oppose changes are not enemies. They are our neighbours, parents, relations, and siblings.
“If you store new wine in an old wine-skin, it will break the bag and wine will be lost.”
Tad Mitsui
Lethbridge
22-21
Agreed Tad EXCEPT your reference to “vinyl” and “nuclear”.
“Vinyl” is on the ascendency once again and “nuclear” , warts an’ all, has a part to play in humanity’s future.
far better than nuclear will be restraint and a significant retraction of our wants. sadly, far too often we confuse want as being need, just as we have come to see the propaganda and lies that is marketing/advertising as “free speech” and truth. nuclear just continues the process of leaving us at least as much unsustainable fallout due to our folly. and, pardon my repetition: if we uncovered the cleanest form of energy from harvest through distribution through consumption, we would still remain vexed by our most significant issues, all related to our “need” to fulfill our wants. to date, the only real restraint upon our wants is money. hardly the basis of sustainability, particularly when greed and and excess and grandeur are seen as the markers of success. is nuclear better than unbridled use of natural gas, hydro? seems to me like just more of the devil, but in yet another suit.
another thoughtful entry, tad. to me, i feel the brunt of the planet is too caught up in satisfying the moment, and not near enough with considering the purpose and the consequent ramifications of whatever it is we deem to be “progress.”