Essays: progress is always good?

TOPIC 37: Do you agree or disagree that progress is always good? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Essay 1

Who would disagree with the statement "progress is good"? Without progress, there would be no change. Without progress, there would be no change in our economy, our standard of living, or our health.

Progress is required to keep the economy moving forward. New products need to be developed; new services need to be created. Without progress, our economy would standstill. There would be no change. Without progress, there would be no supermarkets with fresh produce brought in from all over the world.

Progress is required to improve our standard of living. Our homes today are more efficient and use less natural resources thanks to improvement in home construction techniques. Our clothes are warmer and safer thanks to developments in textile manufacturing. Our educational system is better thanks to the use of the computers and the Internet.

Progress is required to improve the health of the world population. Without progress, there would be no vaccines against deadly diseases like smallpox. Without progress, there would be increased infant mortality. Thanks to progress, our lives are longer and healthier.

Progress is a natural state. Without it, we would not evolve. Without it, our economy, our
standard of living, and our health would deteriorate. Who could deny the necessity of progress?

(Essay ID: 121 )

Essay 2

Is progress always good? Scientific progress brings us many conveniences and advanced
machines, such as computers, automobiles, and so on. Progress seems to have made life more simple and more comfortable. But if we analyze it carefully, we will find that progress is not always good.

Modern industry brings us more convenient life. But at the same time, some problems appear. For example, "the green-house effect" is a very serious problem that scientists try to solve it as early as possible. It increases the earth temperature and some icebergs melt and the sea level becomes higher and higher gradually. Maybe someday the sea will swallow some big cities nearby the sea.

Progress enhances the product efficiency, but it also brings us an other serious problem-pollution. Pollution is so serious that ecological balance is damaged and many animals and plants lose their living environment and become extinct eventually. The air is polluted and it is not suitable for people. The water is also polluted and people are facing deficiency of drinking water in some countries.

Progress makes the speed of life faster and faster because of the usage of computers and
automatic machines. People have to work faster than before and it makes them nervous. More and more physical and psychological problems disturb people's life. Many people do not have time for recreation.

From the above statements, it can be concluded that progress is not always good. It has its own negative influences on our life. Maybe those problems can be solved by more progress.

(Essay ID: 367 )

Essay 3

All over the world people are welcoming progress into their home, their business and their education. Large corporations use progress in technology, industries use progress in their manufacture process. How ever, when we think about in larger picture, it is clear that progress can be damaging in some cases. We as a society have to check ourselves once and a while to make sure, that the progress is not making to much damage to certain communities around the world.

Speaking as a member of every special community called a Kibbutz, which used to provide to our people from the agriculture products we grow in our own fields, and sell in markets. When progress came to our country, many industries got stronger, and farmers like ourselves found their self without a future for their agriculture investment, that they worked and built for years. In this case progress has damaged a large community, and made them face a hard financial future.

Another unfortunate view on progress, is the use of computers to entertain children. In the year 2000, when every home has adopted the progress in computers, children find themselves sitting long hours in front of the computer instead of playing outside or inviting friends over. This way of spending to much time on the computer is very damaging to their social skills, and even a reason for weight gain among young children.

After looking at a different aspects of progress, I can say clearly, that progress has to be supervised.

That in some cases progress is making a big damage for our society. People should welcome progress in many fields of life, but always have your eyes open for little "land mines" that could make an unreversed situation and future.

(Essay ID: 317. This is a 5 point essay)

Essay 4

The nobleness & the use of progress in any field, to an individual, or to the society on the whole, will depend on what use the progress is being put to, and I feel, cannot be generalized as stated above.

Progress has been inherent with the human race. As the human brain developed, so has progress been achieved, in almost all fields known to man. The cultural progress over the ages, have made humans better and made this world, a better place to live in. Similarly, scientific progress has been effective in eradicating diseases, providing better food crops, facilitating transportation etc.
Literary progress has helped us better document our history and has produced works that have made us think. Progress in communication techniques have converged this whole world of ours, into the 'global village'.

If we look at the above examples, we see that they are all aimed at the betterment of our world. Here progress is being applied for the society's good.

The products from the same progress in the various fields, when in wrong hands, wreak havoc in the same society that they are supposed to make better.

Sophisticated arms & explosives in the hands of terrorists & children, science of human cloning in the hands of scientists, crop control technologies in the hands of corporations etc., are some of the examples of how progress can go wrong. Think of how much better the world would be, without nuclear and biological weapons, without mutated food grains et al. Think of how many people would not have died or maimed for life, if there had been no land mines ? After witnessing the destructive use the Dynamite could be put to, Alfred Nobel himself repented his own creation of Dynamite so much that he set up the Nobel prize, to be awarded to people who work for the betterment of the human society.

Therefore, it is my strong contention that progress is only good when it is put to the right use, for the betterment and up liftment of the individual and the society, on a whole. Progress put to any ulterior uses should be outright condemned.

(Essay ID: 320. This is a 5 point essay)