Unit Eight

Economic Growth is a Path toPerdition, Not Prosperity

Period 1-2: Warm up

课文及单词表音频：

I. Dictation/ Read aloud the following words.

II. Discussion/ Presentation

1. How do you understand the cartoon below?

2. Historyof growth as an idea

Growth is a modern idea – a product of the 17th and18th century European Enlightenment that challenged traditional views ofreligion and humankind’s place in the cosmos. Thinkers like Locke in England,Hume in Scotland, Voltaire in France and Paine in the US mapped out this newintellectual terrain.

This rupture with tradition changed age-old cyclicalthinking to sequential thinking, unleashed democratic political movements and ushered in the rule of law.

The idea of progress became paramount: the notionthat history has a direction, which is the gradual improvement of the human condition.

The rise of science and the empirical method merged with improved technologies (the steam engine, gunpowder, the printing press) stimulating early capitalism. Economic growth became synonymous with social progress.

European colonialism spread the idea around theworld. But soon the concept of improvement was eclipsed by a narrow fixation onnumbers. The gross measure of economic output (GDP) became the benchmark for economic success, detached from broad notions of the public good. Growth without concern for its social or ecological consequences became the overarching goal of government policy.

3. Research work

Do some research and learn about environmentalism/ conservationism and ecologism/ eco-criticism.