Word: progression
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...should reverence for the state of nature—in our case, a collection of traits established by the unguided processes of evolution to suit small, hunter-gatherer societies—limit our progress today? Just because something is natural doesn’t make it more or less moral—Huntington’s disease is natural—and if we let such fears dictate our actions we’d be little better off than cavemen. Nature doesn’t provide us with an objective standard for evaluating what a human should be like, other...
...doom and gloom? Part of this Chicken Little complex can be explained by rose-tinted nostalgia, but such pessimism also reflects deep-rooted self-doubt, a certain suspicion of man’s ability to handle his promethean powers. Caution transforms suffering into virtue and material progress into sin; this psychology of self-denial suggests that we are sowing the seeds of our future destruction with our present prolificacy. If this sentiment merely led individuals to forswear their own possessions, it would be rather harmless for society. But unfortunately, the modern ascetic impulse informs a wide range of misguided policy...
...Nevertheless, despite such lingering, misguided policies—and problems still unaddressed, like global warming—we’ve made more progress in the last century than in the previous two million years. Until the 1700s, mortality rates were static, population growth was slow, and unmitigated poverty was the norm, but since then, we’ve enjoyed a spectacular improvement in humanity’s general well-being. Worldwide life expectancy has spiked from 31 to over 67 since 1990, while global average annual income has tripled since 1950, and the number of people living in extreme...
...retreat into a cottage somewhere to grow my own food and feel less guilty about myself...would be a very insular way to make myself feel good.” It might seem like the outspoken liberal has it all figured out, but Provost is still a work in progress. “Everything that happens—she’s always questioning it. Always,” says Kelly L. Lee ’07, one of the four students arrested at last month’s protest. “Sometimes it gets her into trouble...
...opening of the Center this year on the part of some, who wondered aloud about the relevance of our primary mission (to raise awareness of women’s and gender issues, and to celebrate contributions by women that challenge, motivate and inspire) in the midst of so much progress for women, both at Harvard and in the world at large...