Surviving Progress
Surviving Progress explores, amongst other things, the distinction between good and bad progress. Inspired by Ronald Wright’s bestseller A Short History of Progress, this thoughtful, dense documentary is calling upon us to not only revisit the priorities we set for technological development but also to reset our moral compasses. That humans fail to learn from their past is obvious and should lead us to realise that, if left unchecked, our current behaviours will lead to our own demise.
The film explores Wright’s premise whereas “Things are moving so fast that inaction itself is one of the biggest mistakes. The 10,000-year experiment of the settled life will stand or fall by what we do, and don’t do, now. The reform that is needed is not anti-capitalist, anti-American, or even deep environmentalist; it is simply the transition from short-term to long-term thinking. From recklessness and excess to moderation and the precautionary principle.”
But this rational approach is being blocked by vested interests: financial and energy lobbies, so-called special interests group that are so powerful, wealthy and diverse that they have the ability to paralyze governments, countries and halt—or at least hinder—progress of the good kind.
If the Occupy movement stands for anything, it seems to me to be about exactly this: trying to find a new way to loosen the deadly grip of the greedy on our institutions and leaders.
After its successful festival run, Surviving Progress is being released in Québec on 4 November with Canada-wide dates to be announced soon.
It screens Friday 2 December at 7pm at the Rio in Vancouver.
An eye-opening film that really does make us think about our present and future. It will be hard to loosen the grip of greed of those in power and to unburden ourselves from their hegemony, but it can happen and will only happen if we come together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDdhA_qCfYw&feature=channel_video_title
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