The Image of a Country and the Idea of Progress

During westward expansion in the United States, power lines and telegraph lines were important symbols of progress and development. Connected to images of civilization and pure beauty, they were purely good and seen as a necessary step towards a better future.

In contrast, here in this image we see the conquest of wild nature by powerlines in Chilean Patagonia as "the worst image image of the country," an act of destruction. In a successful advertisement campaign to stop the damming of key river in Patagonia, we see this opposing perspective. Maybe there is inherent value in our open spaces, uses beyond large scale, destructive resource extraction.

In the American westward expansion we see value being placed on the progression from uncivilized, dark native ways of life to the taming of the land by farming and technology. But here in this image we see the reverse, the past way of life is bright and full of color, yet progress for progress's sake is characterized by darkness and death. Death of the current ways of life and death of the natural landscape.

This changing idea of progress reminds me of the confusing and paradoxical state of dams around the world at the moment. In the United States we seem to be learning the consequences of our blind faith in progress and progress for progress's sake. In the US now, we are removing dams much faster than we are building them, learning in hindsight how important and economically profitable it is to have functional riparian ecosystems and free flowing rivers. In contrast, the building of dams in developing countries is at an all time high. Can humans not learn from past mistakes? Is there a way that developing countries can see the mistakes made by developed countries and choose to develop in a better way? These images and advertisement campaign made an important impact in Chile, what can we learn from this? How can we continue to share lessons and avoid future repetitions of past mistakes?