Progress— A Word That Has Become More Than Familiar, Especially

A Short History of Progress Written by Mister Ronald Wright, talks about the progress and the issues of having too much change occur to a civilization, and how it can affect the outcome results of a healthy progressing community. He mentioned the ups and downs that occurred to some civilizations and how some triumphed while others did not. Which leads to the main dilemma Wright argues about, which is the current destruction of the environment around us. Over exploiting nature, over expanding, and overpopulating are problems that past societies have come across and is now occurring in our time. These things are what helped societies prosper during certain moments in history but they are now causing problems because we as people are abusing the

Chelsea Vowel's book "The Myth of Progress" (2016), explains that Canada has a long way to go to overcome the harmful and prevalent stereotypes about Indigenous people. The author supports this argument by discussing how the portrayal of Indigenous peoples in Canadian media has hardly changed over the last 200 years. Based on the language and subject matter, it's clear that the intended audience of this piece is Canadians both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

The filmmakers’ main ideas are that the government misled and lied to the people of the U.S. so that they would believe that the atomic bomb would have no effect on their health and security, that we should question if the government should have lied to the American people, and to make us question whether or not the citizens of the U.S. would continue to be as naive as the people of the 1950’s.

“We have to protect our Earth, so our children and grandchildren will never suffer like that,’ she said. And she looked ahead. ‘Maybe nuclear weapons won’t be abolished while I’m alive,’ she said. ‘But I will never give up.” (Hanley, NBC News). August 6, 1945 at 8:16 in the morning, the United States dropped the world's first atomic bomb on thousands of unsuspecting people in Hiroshima, Japan. Not only did this catastrophic event kill thousands of civilians, but it also resulted in other nations obtaining and learning how to create these deadly weapons, weapons that we still have today. In the book Hiroshima by John Hersey he gives readers a new look at that day, through the eyes of six victims who survived the horrific attack on Hiroshima, he shows how the entire city of Hiroshima suffered, and were left alone to fend for themselves.The book Hiroshima by John Hersey, sheds light on the immense dangers of nuclear warfare, and the government's responsibility for its people, affected by a war they aren’t fighting in.

The power to destroy a civilization with a single weapon surely should not exist; however, nothing can fully prohibit all nuclear weapons. The high casualties that Japan had encountered were a loud message to the whole rest of the world portraying that exact statement. The diseases and hardships that the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had dealt with are situations the world fears; therefore,

America’s use of the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities also opened the door to other countries challenging them through their own use of nuclear bombs. Many have criticized that the atomic bomb was an act of “muscle flexing” due to the sheer power and destruction caused by the decision to drop the two bombs. (Nicholls, 67). Not only were these bombs a demonstration of the power that these nuclear weapons had, but they were a testament of power that the United States now held. Never before had a country surrendered in war without first being invaded, so the decision to drop the bomb and Japan's subsequent surrender were extremely significant (Baldwin, 39). These bombings didn’t just impact the Japanese, but the whole world and gave way to

Between 1890 and 1920 Americans were living in the era or period called “Progressive Era.” Progressive Era was a period of political reform, economic growth, and social activism in the United States. During the Progressive Era the industrialization increased, divorce rates increased and emigrates from rural region to urban region increased. There was a lot going on during this period; a great many things happened and bad to America societies. Progressivism movements also happened throughout Progressive Era. The simple definition of progressive Era can be the growth of America’s economy and the increase of problems in different societies, Problems like poverty, corruption, child labor, racism, greed, class warfare, high rate of divorce, safety

Though people questioned why acts of war were committed, they found justification in rationalizing that it served the greater good. As time evolved, the world began to evolve in its thinking and view of the atomic bomb and war. In Hiroshima, John Hersey has a conversation with a survivor of the atomic bomb about the general nature of war. “She had firsthand knowledge of the cruelty of the atomic bomb, but she felt that more notice should be given to the causes than to the instruments of total war.” (Hersey, 122). In John Hersey’s book, many concepts are discussed. The most important concept for the reader to identify was how society viewed the use of the bomb. Many people, including survivors, have chosen to look past the bomb itself, into the deeper issues the bomb represents. The same should apply to us. Since WWII, we have set up many restrictions, protocols and preventions in the hope that we could spare our society from total nuclear war. The world has benefited in our perspective of the bomb because we learned, understand, and fear the use of atomic weapons.

The progressivism was at its peak point from 1890 to 1920. However, the progressivism can be traced back to the Gilded Age and some progressive ideas can be seen later in 1930’s as well. The four main categories of reformers were social, moral, economic, and political. The progressivism required the federal government to be closely involved with the private sector to improve the life of the people.

This investigation revolves around the question “Was Truman pragmatically and morally justified in using the first atomic bomb against Japan to end World War II?” The scope of this investigation is to determine whether the use of the first atomic bomb was the right choice at the time given the situations in both the United States and Japan during 1945, and if the choice to use the bomb was the right decision for the long run; also, the scope is to see if the use of the atomic bomb follows the ideals of Just War Theory. Sources of particular relevance are Michael Gordin’s “Five Days in August: How World War II became a Nuclear War” and Robert Newman’s “Rhetoric and Public Affairs: Truman and the Hiroshima Cult.” The source “Rhetoric and Public Affairs: Truman and the Hiroshima Cult” was written by Robert Newman, a distinguished historian and writer who wrote many articles about World War II and the Cold War, and published by Michigan State University Press on July 31, 1995.

When President Harry S. Truman ordered the nuclear attack on Hiroshima on the 6th of August, 1945, most people were supportive of it because it ended the war before an invasion became necessary. Seventy two years since the first and last nuclear attacks, many 'traditionalist' historians still believe that Truman made the best possible decision in the given circumstances. However, in the 1960's, Truman's critics, who reinterpreted history began to believe that the bomb played no significant role in ending the war and was thus unnecessarily used. These revisionist historians have gone so far as to characterize the use of nuclear weapons as “the single greatest acts of terrorism in human history” (Awan, 16). On the other hand, traditionalists argue that the bomb was an important

The term, progress, is synonymous with phrases that denote moving forward, growth, and advancement. It seems unorthodox then that Ronald Wright asserts the world has fallen into a progress trap, a paradox to how progress is typically portrayed as it contradicts the conventional way life is viewed: as being a natural progression from the outdated and tried towards the new and improved. Wright posits that it is the world’s relentless creation of innovative methods that ironically contributes to the progress trap rather than to progress itself, the intended objective. Wright’s coinage of the term “progress trap” refers to the phenomenon of innovations that create new complications that are typically left without resolve which exacerbate

Susan Neiman’s article caught me completely off guard. Even as someone who grew up outside of the United States, I was taught educated by my teachers that the Atomic bombs, which exploded in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were the most crucial elements that led to the surrender of Japan during World War II. Many US historians also argued that the bomb not only hasten hastens the end of the war, but also saved almost a million American soldiers who could have died if the war was to continue. However, Neiman pointed out sharply in her article that “the US did not drop the (atomic) bomb in order to end the war or save lives.” (Neiman, 12) Through unclassified historical evidence,

It’s 2028 and the two nuclear giants are fighting against each other. Thousands dead, buildings in ashes and many hopes destroyed. Yet the worst is yet to come. The temperature of the world is decreasing to new records and is staying like that for many years to come. This is a nuclear winter that many scientists have predicted for decades. A nuclear weapon uses either uranium or plutonium. They work by using a nuclear reaction which breaks down an atom or nucleus into two pieces. This process produces a significant amount of energy which leads to an explosion. (Chan) A nuclear weapon can also be as big as a refrigerator or as small as a warhead. (Daniel) The first nuclear weapon was made in the 1930s known as the “Manhattan Project” made by the U.S. This project was suspended after Hitler was killed, but the U. S. used the weapon due to Japan attacking Pearl Harbor. This attack put the U. S. in a rage, so the U. S had a plan to use the weapon and another nuclear weapon. The U. S dropped a bomb named “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, which followed with the biggest explosion ever witnessed. Then the U. S dropped another bomb. (Lemouse) This was the first and last time anyone used a nuclear bomb, for now. While several people in the government and regular citizens argue that nuclear weaponry is stopping from giving any threats, but nuclear weaponry is actually causing an environmental turmoil and a radiation that will affect everyone in the vicinity for many ages to come.

Progress is defined as movement toward a destination. Conflict is defined as being incompatible or at variance with something. When paired together progress is questioned as to its ability in light of either the absence or presence of conflict. For as long as questions have been asked this question is one that finds itself being answered within the realm of political institutions and interrogated within the universal discussion as to whether or not human beings as a species can evolve or move past its current point without the presence of some distinguished force. In thinking on this question two scholars immediately present themselves. They are Charles Darwin and Karl Marx. Both of these men, one a naturalist/geologist, the other an