Progress is not just a goal in the West-it's a religion. Most people believe in its inherent value as enthusiastically and uncritically as medieval peasants believed in heaven and hell. Our faith in progress drives the popular insistence that peak oil and climate change don't actually matter-after all, our lab-coated high priests will surely bring forth yet another miracle to save us all.
Unfortunately, progress as we've known it has been entirely dependent on the breakneck exploitation of half a billion years of stored sunlight in the form of fossil fuels. As the age of this cheap, abundant energy draws to a close, progress is grinding to a halt. Unforgiving planetary limits are teaching us that our blind faith in endless exponential growth is a dangerous myth.
After Progress addresses this looming paradigm shift, exploring the shape of history from a perspective on the far side of the coming crisis. Greer's startling examination of the role our belief systems play in the evolution of our collective consciousness is required reading for anyone concerned about making sense of the future at a time when we must seek new sources of meaning, value, and hope for the era ahead.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-255) and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Description conventions
- rda
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 303.44
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 23
- Distributor
- Canadian Electronic Library (Firm),
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- ISBN
- 9781550925869 1550925865
- LCCN
- HM891
- LCCN Item number
- G74 2015eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaBNVSL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (viii, 263 pages)
- Published in
- Ottawa, Ontario
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00930635 (OCoLC)913977595 (CaOOCEL)467316
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Title proper/short title
- Reason and religion at the end of the industrial age
- Transcribing agency
- CaBNVSL
Table of Contents
- Front Cover 1
- Praise 2
- Title Page 6
- Rights Page 7
- Contents 8
- Introduction 10
- Chapter 1: The Noise of the Gravediggers 14
- Chapter 2: The Shape of Time 40
- Chapter 3: The Rock By Lake Silvaplana 64
- Chapter 4: A Peculiar Absence of Bellybones 90
- Chapter 5: The God with the Monkeywrench 110
- Chapter 6: On the Far Side of Progress 144
- Chapter 7: Life Preservers for Mermaids 168
- Chapter 8: Religion Resurgent 196
- Chapter 9: At the Closing of an Age 222
- Notes 256
- Bibliography 260
- Index 266
- About the Author 272
- A Guide to Responsible Digital Reading 273