{"id":30936,"date":"2018-02-13T07:35:37","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T12:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=30936"},"modified":"2018-02-13T07:35:37","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T12:35:37","slug":"closing-the-gap-between-the-science-and-politics-of-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=30936","title":{"rendered":"Closing the Gap between the Science and Politics of Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"post-image\">\n<div class=\"fimg-wrapper fimg-cl\">\n<div class=\"featured-image\">\n<div class=\"fimg-inner\">\n<div class=\"vm-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"vm-middle\">\n<h3 class=\"post-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.resilience.org\/stories\/2018-02-13\/closing-gap-science-politics-progress\/\">Closing the Gap between the Science and Politics of Progress<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"backstretch\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/jonathan-singer-239377.jpg\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"backstretch\"><em>Ed.note: This article draws on a paper published this month in the international journal, Social Indicators Research. The paper is available on Richard\u2019s website, <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richardeckersley.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>www.richardeckersley.com.au<\/em><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"post-content\">\n<div class=\"et_social_inline et_social_mobile_on et_social_inline_top\">\n<div class=\"et_social_networks et_social_6col et_social_slide et_social_rectangle et_social_left et_social_no_animation et_social_withcounts et_social_outer_light\">\n<div class=\"et_social_network_label\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Global politics is based on an outmoded and increasingly destructive model of human progress and development. Can science change a dire situation?<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u2018My view of human progress has stayed surprisingly constant throughout my presidency. The world today, with all its pain and all its sorrow, is more just, more democratic, more free, more tolerant, healthier, wealthier, better educated, more connected, more empathetic than ever before. If you didn\u2019t know ahead of time what your social status would be, what your race was, what your gender was, or your sexual orientation was, what country you were living in, and you asked what moment in human history you would like to be born, you\u2019d choose right now.\u2019\u00a0<\/em>Barack Obama, President of the United States 2009-2017<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It is unusual for a national leader to articulate his worldview in this way. Nonetheless, Obama\u2019s view of progress is one that is, broadly speaking, shared by politicians and governments throughout the developed world and beyond (partly framed here by the \u2018identity politics\u2019 that characterises political debate today). The view reflects the dominant or orthodox model of development.<\/p>\n<p>However, this model is increasingly at odds with what science tells us about the world. It is not that the specific achievements are wrong, but that they are incomplete, and so present a false picture of progress. The growing gap between the conventional view and the realities of people\u2019s lives helps to explain the widespread public disquiet in many countries and its political consequences, evident in growing political volatility and extremism.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Closing the Gap between the Science and Politics of Progress Ed.note: This article draws on a paper published this month in the international journal, Social Indicators Research. The paper is available on Richard\u2019s website, www.richardeckersley.com.au Global politics is based on an outmoded and increasingly destructive model of human progress and development. Can science change a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[391,9545,1825,6665,18517,705,1252],"class_list":["post-30936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","category-survival-2","tag-growth","tag-models","tag-progress","tag-resilience-org","tag-richard-eckersley","tag-science","tag-worldview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30937,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30936\/revisions\/30937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}