Surviving Progress (2011)

This film clearly offers an education on how colonialism and imperialism is now accomplished in the modern world, often without our even having any idea it is going on. In the bad old days, the resources of the third world were raided with the old tried and true tools of guns and germs. However, this proved too politically inexpedient in a world were such actions could not remain hidden.Economic policies now bring about the same ends; expanding poverty and environmental degradation in third world countries while continuing to enriching the planets elite. The movie clearly illustrates the systems in play that allow this to be repeated over and over all over the globe.As the marginal beneficiaries of this system, we have to ask ourselves, can it continue, is it sustainable, will there be a price to pay? Watch the movie! It is definitely food for thought.

I read some not all that good reviews of this title, cause its simple, not enough informing, but this one is on the top of my list.Maybe some need to hear through documentary that only few percent are the one who are controlling if they still didn't conclude that them selves.Some of topics will be new to people who wonder why there is no other color for iphone5 or why my neighbor has better car than me...I hope that for the moment some questions will pop up in their heads.Im now in Europe country living for over 3 decades, and even here I can feel every bit of that few percent of chosen which are controlling the foot on our heads. And what about Africa and third world countries? We are good now, have internet, watching movies, eating food from stores, driving around in cars...but what about our children? Or their? There is just too few which are brave and consistent enough to get in that fight, and thats sad. We are just lost in fog of materialism, and thats whats this documentary is about, getting out of that fog, and seeing what obstacles we have to conquer.I really enjoyed the documentary, its eye opening, and for those who already know the story, movies, and books, still should be a piece to applaud. Its important we have more and more this kind of documentaries to get to even larger number of people.If you don't like documentaries by default, and still live in fantasy only, try this one, maybe it will be revealing to you. And there are many more not to make you smarter, to throw that knowledge as show of, but to question you're sense of perceiving this world, civilization in whole.its not about the phones, its about our enlightenment as species.

There are very many documentaries of this sort, where the goal of it is to convince the viewer of the message they're trying to convey. In so doing, we get a completely one sided argument, looking more as an indoctrination video, then as a informative source. But the message it tries to convey is so important, that every effort to bring this issue to the attention of the public, is needed if we're to avert a major catastrophe.The documentary starts by explaining how human nature is not designed to deal with the complexity of 21st century life. As the movie progresses it goes in more and more situations of how today's civilization (mainly the rich countries) is on a course to destroy our environment which may very well bring the end to our civilization.My main point of contention lies in the fact that the situation is presented as a scenario that requires total abandonment conventional approaches and when one is presented, the filmmakers present a counter argument based on nothing but an opinion. Having a science background I tend to look for supporting and opposing information for an issue before coming to a conclusion, whereas this movie presents only one sided biased point of view. Therein lies the problem, which is inherent of today's society, that is preventing any progress in developing a more sustainable way of life. Our society is completely ignorant of the dangers we're facing today, no matter how much one tries to inform, there seems to be a glitch with the way a human brain works that's renders it incapable to respond to pessimistic scenarios. Therefore if society is not willing to even wake up to the fact we're at a crossroads, its impossible for them to change completely the way of life the film is proposing. Whereas the film is not giving any room for any other solution then changing completely our way of life, there's other solutions.The film should have mentioned how the number of people earth could sustain, has increased where even in the 60's it was widely believed that the Earth could not sustain more then 4 billion. The very idea the movie dismissed (that of genetic engineering) has allowed for shift. Another issue I had a problem with is the issue with economics. It's true economics is not a science, but not because, as Dr. Suzuki puts it "view environmental impact as externality" but because economy is dependent on humans. Environmental concerns are constant, predictable, thus can be taken into account in a scientific sense. Human beings on the other hand, are unpredictable, reactionary, and utterly irrational, thus making any conclusions that would stand scientific inquiry impossible.This film is important because it can raise awareness, but fails on impartiality. So if a person with an opposing point of view, I believe will dismiss the whole thing as left wing propaganda, therefore it won't change anybodies misconceptions.

All the issues are very nicely addressed with the detailed pros and cons. very thought provoking and I hope we all learn from it and start respecting the mother nature and the surroundings... once again congrats to the team for making such an effort to show us where do we stand today!!!! I hope the movie is showed to all the school and college going students to make a general awareness and are being made aware of how can they can make there commitment in the coming years. The detailed research of the contributors and there experience will surely guide us all in our way of looking towards our daily life and help make a change.