At the end of the twentieth century, more areas of the world were democratic than ever before, and the global threat to the environment from human activity was greater than ever before

Question

What do these two facts tell us about the notion of "progress"? Do they offer any guide to where we are headed in the future and how we might steer the most beneficial route?

Answer 1

Answers will vary but correct responses should include: The limits of convergence are apparent in conflict. After the failures of every twentieth-century attempt to construct a "new world order" of international collaboration, we lack institutions capable of global decision-making. The "American century" is over: In future, the world cannot rely on the leadership of a single superpower to solve problems and impose solutions in an intractably divided world. The twentieth century was a period of intense and frequently violent competition between ideologies. Economic systems collided. Adherents of different kinds of political totalitarianisms fought wars against each other and against democracy. Even when those conflicts ended in triumphs for democracy and capitalism, religions conflicted with atheism and secularism as well as with each other. Battle lines formed around incompatible understandings of human rights and responsibilities. Whole civilizations—according to some predictions—threatened to clash.Our interactions with the planet have become more problematical than at any time since the age of plague—perhaps since the last Ice Age. Although a lot of the biosphere remains underexploited, we now consume finite resources so fast that the sustainability of our way of life is under threat. Natural forces we seem least able to control—microbial evolution and climate change—are in a volatile phase. We have to adapt to survive.