Progress VS. Nature

I oscillate between having complete faith in humanity, and believing we are entirely hopeless. This project, unfortunately, has enforced the latter. I tried, as I went into this topic, to have an open, non-biased take on the argument about “what is progress,” but have found myself utterly and vehemently opposed to the way things are and have been since the 20^th century. As a result of my research on Frontiers of the Future and Eating Animals, and further backed by Into the Wild, I have become ever more certain that our human progress drags us increasingly, interminably, incomprehensibly far from nature.

With the arguments laid out about the state of American Progress in 1937 by Lowell Thomas, I entered this project with a heightened understanding of the discovery-driven nature of my people. The video suggests that Americans were, at the time, an intelligent nation filled with scientists and engineers, always on the pursuit of innovation and breakthrough. Having explored the physical bounds of the continental U.S., Thomas states that “The frontiers of the future are not on any map; they are in the minds of men, and in the test tubes and laboratories of the great industries we have built up here in America” (National Industrial Counsel 1937). Thomas appears to imply that mankind has moved beyond the bounds that nature has constructed for us, and it is rather time to explore the apparently limitless facets of our human mind. Herein we not only see the characteristic American Exceptionalism that drives so much of our politics today, we also see a flamboyantly hefty claim that progress must be separate from nature.

Now, having identified a rift between technology and the natural world, the contents of my claim become possible to support. Among his other now-concerning statements, Lowell Thomas maintains that “in coal, we have found the colors of the rainbow and the perfume of nature’s sweetest flowers” (National Industrial Counsel). We know now, of course, that coal scars the natural landscape, creates smog and emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere; and that is research that has only recently become provable. More important - and more concerning - is the lack of concern for the possible consequences of using a new material. It appears that when the profitable nature of coal was discovered, the possible problems and limiting factors were entirely ignored. Humans have a tendency to act first, analyze later, and in this example we suffered for it. Interestingly enough, even Chris McCandless, who died fighting for his liberation from the Taker ways of our species, shot a moose before he realized that he had no idea what to do with it. In many ways, Chris embodied the archetype of rash human actions without mind for consequence, and perished in a (MAN-MADE) bus because of it. Finally, Eating Animals describes the appalling production of animals for the benefit not only of natural ‘survival,’ but for the benefit of the economy. The current trend among American eating is that we must produce without regard for the well-being of that which we consume. We go so far as to manipulate the lighting in a chicken factory farm in order to biologically trick the chickens into thinking it is springtime (i.e. egg-laying time) (Safran Foer 59). Our ‘ingenious’ use of technology allows us to produce more, faster, for cheaper. This is wrong. This is unnatural.

Lowell Thomas, Chris McCandless and Jonathan Safran Foer all show us that our human desire to explore and innovate and produce is incompatible with the simplistic, thoughtful natural world. KFC is the enemy of the chicken. Progress is the enemy of nature.

My Role in the Project

My role in this project was taking notes on Into the Wild, Eating Animals, and Frontiers of the Future. I spent a significant chunk of time analyzing these sources in relation to each other, making connections between them. I admit I have read Eating Animals in the past, but I still spent time skimming through to find text examples of appalling examples of technology use and interesting insights to the American eating habits. Reading this story a second time helped to remind me why I have tried to reduce my consumption of meat, and made me interested in continuing to do so in my college years, when I have more control over what I eat and how I eat it.

Also, I wrote the section of the rap that was “pro nature,” or more specifically that progress is bad for the preservation of the natural world. I confess I greatly enjoy writing rhymes, I find them entertaining in addition to being rather difficult. For next time, I would ideally make the instructions for the project clearer; they were eventually understandable when Mr. Wensman explained them a few times, but on paper they were tricky. In general I find group projects difficult because everyone has their own work habits, but in this case my group managed to divide our topic up into separate pieces that we could put together at the end.

Overall, I felt like I got a lot out of researching this topic with regards to the texts, but I wish there could have a been a little more time so it wasn’t quite so rushed.

Works Cited

·  Foer, Jonathan Safran. Eating animals. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2009. Print.

Frontiers of the Future. Dir. Lowell Thomas. Perf. Lowell Thomas. Prelinger Archives, 1937. Film.

Krakauer, Jon. Into the wild. New York: Anchor Books, 1997. Print.