Enemies of Progress?
Big Ideas Forum 2009
Monday, 10 August 2009
Austin Williams, Dr Patrick Michaels and Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich
Running time: 93 mins
Where humanity once solved the world's problems, we are now viewed as the source. We no longer take pride in dynamic progress to benefit mankind; we bemoan the so-called carbon footprint that this progress will leave. Experimentation and entrepreneurship are being replaced by conformity and rules, and we are becoming a panicky, sensationalist and risk-averse society. Doom and disaster merchants, feeding off genuine crises such as the current financial crash, stymie big ideas and development and encourage government intervention and restrictions. From the optimism and grand thinking of the Victorians to the current day pessimism, what has happened to the idea of progress?
