What’s the point of progress?

I just saw Gandhi the movie last weekend at it reminded me of a quote he once said that “There’s more to life than increasing its speed.” He was more of a Flintstone. When you think about it, as children we were caught between the Flinstones and Jetsons. Somewhere in the middle of the stone age and the future, we had to to make conscious choice about which way we wanted to go. Was it cooler to have a car that you pedaled or a craft that flies? Was it cooler to eat a huge mammoth rib or a small pill that tasted like one? Was it cooler to have a dinosaur named Dino to lick the dishes or a robotic maid named Rosey to handle the dirty work?

So the 21st century is here and it appears that we’ve chosen the path of the Jetsons – bigger and faster is better. Despite our “progress” as a world, has anything really changed? Are we any better off within as people because of the technologies without? Where the hell are we rushing to or are we rushing to hell?

I’ve been rushing my whole life. I came out the womb a month early. I finished college a year early. I finished business school 4 years earlier than average. Now it’s time to slow down. As a child I ate Flintstones vitamins. Symbolically, I think there are parts of the Flintstone’s lifestyle that are healthy. I’m afraid that the world is going nowhere fast and we need to find a healthy balance between the Flintstones and the Jetsons. Our measurements of progress as individuals (ie income, materials) and a planet (ie economy, GDP) need to be reconsidered. More dollar bills don’t mean we’re build-ing and speed isn’t always the best indicator of quality.