Idea of progress

The notion of progress refers to the fact of something going forward towards an advanced
or improved version of itself. Along history, great progress encountered most of the time
significant opposition because some people weren’t comfortable with the great changes
they involved, which can make us ask ourselves: is progress always a good thing? There
are many kinds of progress and they can be divided in diverse areas.

A. Technological progress

Technological advances of the last decades completely changed and reshaped the world
we know today. The progression of internet and smartphones are transforming lives and
human relationships in totally unprecedented ways. Whereas we can have access to
information from all over the world in a blink of an eye, that we can contact and keep in
touch with everybody and anybody, and that we can record and store billions of pictures
and videos, we should ask ourselves about the impact new technologies have on our way
of living especially concerning the fate of new generations.

According to a CNN report from 2015 (an American news channel), teenagers spend up
to 9 hours a day using media through their computers, T.V.s or smartphones. According
to another study made the same year by CNN called «#being13», some of 13 years old
surveyed check their social media up to 100 times a day in order to «see if their online
posts are getting likes and comments, see if their friends are doing things without them
or to make sure no one was saying mean things about them».

Key-words: smartphones, reshaped, transforming lives, impact, new generations

B. Scientific progress

Scientific progress might be the best known because of it’s direct impact on the
improvement of human life. We owe it medicine, vaccination, and so many discoveries
about our world. But could there be a point were progress come too far? What should be
the importance given to ethics?

In 2000, Adam Nash was born in the US as the first «saviour sibling». According to the
Oxford dictionary, a saviour sibling is «A child conceived through selective in vitro
fertilization as a potential source of donor organs or cells for an existing brother or sister
with a life-threatening medical condition». The intention of wanting to save a child is
more than understandable, but does that mean that it’s acceptable to conceive a second
child for the sole purpose of saving the first one on the account of its genes?
Key-words: improvement, human life, in vitro, ethics, genes

C. Social progress

Social progress was often started by a desire for equality and improvement of the living
conditions expressed by some parts of the population. In some cases they had to go
through severe opposition and to fight for their rights.

In 1903 when women were still considered in Britain as second-class citizen, the
«Suffragettes», an organisation in favor of the women’s right to vote was created. They
campaigned through a lot of protests, sometimes violently, and went through a strong
repression that put lots of them in prison. In 1918, after the First World War, women
above 30 finally got the right to vote for the first time.

Another example of social progress on behalf of equality was accomplished by the Civil
Rights Movement between 1954 and 1968 in the US. African American were segregated
and discriminated against because of their skin colour, and their fight for equality was
characterized by acts of non-violent protest and civil disobedience. The crisis started by
their movement led to major social progress.

At the time of those issues, it seems unimaginable for the biggest part of the society to
see women voting, or to see a Black man using the same bathroom than a White man in
a restaurant. In our societies nowadays those are completely normal facts, which can
make us wonder about the time when progress stops being a change and becomes
common. If we try to apply this idea to same-sex marriage, which was banned in 2015
from 13 American States and is still ban in Northern Ireland, we can imagine that maybe
in the future this social progress might be considered common.

Key-words: equality, improvement, living conditions, opposition, fight, organisation,

movement, protests, repression, society, unimaginable

Opening question: Concerning international relations and on a political scale, as

Brexit represents a major change, can we consider it as a progress? Or, as a
regression?