Surviving Progress

Mathieu Roy's elegant documentary argues that the human brain has simply not evolved enough to keep pace with technological innovation—resulting in a world verging on catastrophe. Based on A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright (one of many interviewees here, as well as Stephen Hawking, Margaret Atwood, and Jane Goodall), Surviving Progress argues that the 19th-century Industrial Revolution—while a remarkable achievement in many ways—has brought in its wake a host of problems, including overpopulation, environmental degradation, and the increasing scarcity of resources that are more and more in demand by the growing economies of China, India, and other emerging nations. Unfortunately, humans still operate on the basis of instinctual drives that developed during prehistoric times, inhibiting our ability to embrace rational, long-term solutions instead of following our natural impulses towards self-interest and immediate gain. A fascinating work of engaged filmmaking, the documentary deftly assembles a collage of well-edited material—interviews, archival footage, and newly shot sequences (including a segment portraying how Congo has been plundered of its resources and burdened by financiers with debt it can never hope to repay)—in order to pose provocative questions. And while it offers a wee bit of hope for practical solutions to the dangers the West has created for the entire human race, Surviving Progress will also surely produce heated debate over the possibility that modern Western civilization, like many others before it, is poised for extinction. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (F. Swietek)