Expression orale - Idée de progrès: is progress always a progress?

Intro : The notion I’m going to deal with is the idea of progress. To begin with, I’d like to give a definition of the idea of progress

The idea of progress can be defined as an improvement, a development or a change, a technical, scientific or social advance which contributes to making the world a better place.

We can to raise the question : Is progress always a progress ?

First of all, we can see the social and political advances. Then, we can focus on the timeline of progress. Finally, can progress go wrong ?

I) Social and political advances

First of all, in this part we watched an extract from Invictus. In this movie we can see different aspect of idea of progress. Indeed, south Africans can vote for the first time in presidential election. Besides, moving away from violence is also a step towards progress. People stand up for one's rights with pacific demonstration. Mandela wanted to make his country a shining star and bring black and white people together to put an end to apartheid.

Similary, thanks to the struggle of the Suffragette women can vote. Women's rights are increasing. Instead of being housewives, and stay at home to cook, take care of children or clean, women can study whatever they choose and start a career.

II) A timeline of progress

To begin, we have understoody two cartoons. One shows a real invention (the fire) and the other a fictional one ( the materializer, an elaborate machine that realizes people's wishes). These two cartoons show the whole scope of human inventions and set the limits of our reflection. Progress should always be praised, no society could have survived without the knowhow of lighting a fire, but can we just do about anything to satisfy our every wish as the second cartoon suggests ? Indeed the experience of the second cartoons show us that this materializer should be handled with caution to avoid disaster. However, some inventions like the vaccine against rabies saved many lives. Unfortunately, in some fileds progress has been speeding up over the past century and a half without much thought being given to the potentially negative consequences like global warming or greenhouse effects.

III) Can progress go wrong ?

In this part, there are some different aspect. First of all, we can talk about the pollution. We have study some cartoons that illustrate the reckless use of the new technologies that have transformed the world. But whose negative fallout was never anticipated and often enough ignored so long as nobody protest. Then, we can to denounce the digital divide. There is a huge gap between generations and it's turn into a technological barrier for those whose lives hasn't revolded around new technologies since they were born. Besides, some countries don't yet have access to technologies because of their poverty. We have also mentioned that instead of becoming the master of the universe people have become dependent on technologies.

Conclusion : To sum up, groundbreaking progress, medical, technological breakthroughs are the future of humanity. Neither can it be stopped nor does anyone wish to bring this process to halt. But these breakthroughs are

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