Victim Of Progress Summary

Victims of Progress

Bodley wrote that many of us are “victims of progress”; I believe that he meant that we are allowing ourselves to get lost in our civilizations progress rather than withstand all the new intrusions (technology, social trends, etc.) and remain with our native culture. We are a civilization that is often introducing new ideas, scientific revelations and so much more that it is difficult to stabilize what exactly we believe. For instance, hundreds of years ago we were told that the Earth was flat, and we all believed it, now we “know” the Earth is round, how do we know that in another few hundreds or possibly thousands of years there won’t be a dispute about this? Without stability of all these new social or technological advances it is very arduous to accommodate our native cultures traditions. “When acted upon by external forces a culture will, if necessary, undergo specific changes only to the extent of and with the effect of preserving unchanged its fundamental structure and character.” This relates very well to the foundation of our country. The Native Americans
We paid the price of progress, which was to lose age old traditions and customs just to accommodate our civilizations political, and ideological advances. As consumers, our society is quick to buy most of what we are shown (in a convincing manner) without questioning. We began as interrogators, always questioning what others told us, what was the risk of changing what we consume daily, etc. Then our culture began to influence us to trust more and change often. For example, we often rely on what critics or experts say is the better for us rather than try it ourselves without preconceptions. A rating of 5 stars is obviously better than 3 stars rights? But who says? Some expert that prefers luxury over simplicity? How can we really think that one 5 star rating will suit us