Free Thinking : The world

From New Delhi, writer Rana Dasgupta

• Main
• August 2006

1. What does progress mean?

   • Rana Dasgupta
   • 31 Jul 06, 05:46 PM

   Modern people “know” that they live at the lucky end of a long line of progress. Their lives may be full of problems, but at least they don’t have to deal with being medieval – or worse. Modern people know (as many other societies have at different times in history) they are special, chosen, charmed.

   On the face of it, this would be a claim of enormous arrogance. How do we “know” that it’s true?

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1. Welcome to this weblog

   • Rana Dasgupta
   • 31 Jul 06, 05:03 PM

   
   A few months ago, the human race reached a significant moment in its history. For the first time ever, the majority of human beings now live in cities.

   What does this mean? Is it a sign that modernity is extending its benefits to ever more people, or simply a catastrophic over-concentration? What kinds of living can people expect for themselves as the population of some cities begins to exceed twenty millions? Will these giant megapolises produce only mind-numbing bedlam or will they also be places of fertility, poetry and beauty? Are we right to imagine that the urban future is locked into nightmarish intensification, or are we free to imagine more sustainable possibilities for our cities?

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