Progressiveness in the Present Epoch

Progressiveness in the Present Epoch-Second Edition

http://www.ghandchi.com/352-taraghikhahiEng.htm

Preface and Full Text of the Paper in Persian

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Progressiveness in the Present Epoch-Second Edition

ترقي خواهي در عصر کنوني (متن کامل)-ويرايش دوم

I wrote the original text of this paper in 1984 and it was published in Iran Times of Washington D.C. from Nov 20, 1987 to Jan 8, 1988. If I were writing this series today, I would write most of it the same way as I have written then, except for the last part.

In the last part about the new civilization, I had noted then that in negating the present industrial society, most of the ones who call themselves the New Age Movement, are going back, in retrogression, to pre-industrial viewpoints, just like the majority of the participants of the Iranian Revolution, rather than moving forward to a post-industrial future. New Age movement, in contrast to futurism, has distanced itself more and more from science.

Today, the futurists, for the most part, have continued their efforts of understanding our epochal change and moving forward, whereas the ones who go under the umbrella of New Age Movement, as I had noted in this article over ten years ago, further and further digressed to superstition and backward views.

The adherents of the New Age Movement remind me of jalAl-e Al-e Ahmad in Iran, whom in opposing the Westernization, went to a viewpoint of negating progress and industrialization, and advocated going back to pre-industrial agricultural society.

In contrast, futurists, have been looking forward, just like the thinkers of Renaissance and 19th Century, who looked forward, in an epochal change, and try to understand the dimensions of the post-industrial society, as it dawns in the 21st Century, as I have noted in my Intelligent Tools article.

Please look at the many books written by the futurists, on many topics related to these epochal changes, in the book lists of World Future Society and Iranscope.

As one can see, worldwide, just as in Iran, the global change towards post-industrial society, has been accompanied by thinkers who look forward to find solutions for the problems found in this epochal change, and at the same time there are those, whom unable to deal with the perplexities of such glacial changes, advocate going back to the most backward pre-industrial superstitions, to rid themselves of the difficulties of solving the new problems that need new solutions.

Hoping for a Futurist, Federal, Democratic, and Secular Republic in Iran,

Sam Ghandchi, Publisher/Editor

IRANSCOPE

http://www.iranscope.com

Nov 1, 2004

Introduction (Persian)

Iranian Intellectual Thought and Islamic Revolution (Persian)

Political Groups and Concepts of Progress (Persian)

Sufism and the Idea of Progress (Persian)

Modern Futurism

New Civilization and New Age Movement (Persian)

P.S. Other Articles Related to this Topic