Unit Eight

Economic Growth is a Path toPerdition, Not Prosperity

Period 7-8 Exercises

Assignments:

1. Please listen to (watch) the following video/audio clips

    AnInconvenient Truth《难以忽视的真相》(an Oscar-winning documentary)

    More onGlobal Warming (a VOA report on opposing views that global warmingis not a real danger) 

2. Work in groups of four:

    What is the main idea of the documentary?

    Do you find Al Gore’s arguments convincing? Anyargument or reasoning you find not valid?

    What is the main opposition presented in the secondclip? Are you convinced?

    What is your opinion on global warming: is it areal danger? If it is, what should we do to tackle this problem?

3. Picture discription

What canyou learn from the graphs? Please describe the following pictures in detail.

4. Have studentscompare this text with the text in Unit 12: Onwards and Upwards. Let them find out where the two texts are related and how theyare different.

Themeof Unit 12: Onwards and Upwards

On the surface, the subject of this text is very similar to the text of Unit 8 “Economic Growth Is a Path to Perdition, NotProsperity.” Both seem to be about economic growth, about GDP.

But when we read it carefully again , we will findthat this text is really about something more challenging. It is about ourfuture , about human destiny , about whether or not we will be able to move toa world of final bliss.

The article here gives us a historical account oftbe concept of progress. It tells us how for various reasons people havetrusted that our life and society will always change for the better until inthe end we succeed in establishing a paradise on Earth. In fact, in the courseof history, various ways have been pointed out to us in which this can be done.

In recent times, however, people are no longer sooptimistic. They are not so sure about their happy future. Things change moreand more quickly, but they do not necessarily change for the better. Progressno longer seems to equal approaching our ideals or happiness, and many traditionalmagic instruments with which we have been assured to realize our happy destiny seemto have lost their attraction. So what shall we do? The author of this essay isasking us to rethink about the concept of “progress,” and he has given us heresome interesting ideas to start with:

1) The word “progress” has to be carefullyredefined. To move onward does not always or automatically mean to move upward.

2) Today our techoological and scientific advancesseem to be accompanied by moral and spiritual declines.

3) Looking back, it is true that we have changed forthe better in many ways. We have progressed in the best sense of the wordalthough serious problems exist. Therefore there is no reason to despair.

4) Today, the most important thing for us is toreject both utopia and degeneracy, refuse to be either blindly optimistic orpessimistic. We must adopt Ms Neiman’s proposal to find a moral purpose inlife. We must strive for our moral ideals for their own sake. 10 this way, wewill probably never meet the final goal, but we will still be able to makeprogress.

 

Structure

I. Introduction:The popular view in the rich world about material progress and moral advance(para. 1)

II. The idea ofprogress – the backdrop to society (paras. 2-8)

A. Theideal of progress in the 18th and 19th centuries. (p ara. 2)

B.Supposed agents of progress. (p ara. 3)

C.Importance of the idea of progress. (paras. 4--8)

III. History of theidea of progress (paras. 9-24)

A.Demonstration of the idea in source of progress (para. 9)

B.Rebuttal of the language and community of the source of progress (paras. 10-12)

C.Rebuttal ofthe modern-age belief in science as the source of progress (p aras.13-17)

D.Rebuttal of the belief in economic growth as the modern source of progress (paras.18-21)

E. Moralsensibilty and governance (p aras. 22 - 24)

IV. Conclusion:Susan Neiman’s book on moral sensibility (paras. 25-28)

 

5.Discussion

   Encouragestudents to review the historical development of the concept of progress with moreconcrete examples.

   Have studentsdiscuss how the confusion over the impoverished meaning of progress is reflectedin our life today.

   Theauthor does not seem to trust any of the traditional ways which promise tosecure our happiness: religion, language, market, strong government, anarchy,evolution, education, legislature, GDP, etc. Can we really dismiss all of them?Encourage students to criticize and comment.