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Dec 19, 2013akirakato rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
This is a 2011 87-minute Canadian documentary loosely based on "A Short History of Progress"---2004 Massey Lecture series by Ronald Wright about societal collapse. It is structured as a series of interviews, interspersed with footage from all over the world. Unlike the book, which focused on ancient civilizations, the film focuses on the present-day impact of civilization, including the impact of concentrated wealth. The underlying message is that current models and strategies of economic growth have no practical connections with the real world. The lack of an ethical underpinning in modern global economic practices is directly responsible for the overconsumption and exploitation of natural resources to the extent that the increasingly more probable future population collapse would take modern society right along with it. It is a thought-provoking documentary.